A New York Yankee in Kathryn Janeway's Court
by Lusha
Summary: A freakish girl from 21st century has an even freakier accident with a clothes dryer and gets zapped through time and space. Takes place shortly into the fifth season July 2373. P/T, J/C, Platonic OC/Paris.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_**I** _hate _doing laundry,_ she thought, taking wet, soppy clothes that reeked of bleach out of the clothes washer and throwing them into the adjacent dryer. _I really don't understand why Mom insists on using these archaic devices when the laundromat a block away has newer machines..._

Allucia threw the last of the clothes in the dryer. She stood on her tip-toes and took a fabric softener sheet out of a box on the tall dusty shelf above the two machines and threw it in the dryer. She slammed the door, then slammed her fist on the button to start the cycle.

As the young woman began to put the next load of clothes in the washer, the dryer suddenly stopped. It gave a high-pitched whine, then a low-pitched one before breaking down with a unhealthy rattle.

"Shit." she muttered. _Stupid trap must be backed up..._ After finding the lint trap lint-free, she decided to check the other end. She opened the dryer and peered in, and put her upper body in the opening, since she could fit somewhat comfortably being as petite as she was. She tried to open the vent; but it seemed to be stuck.

As she went to pull at the vent again with more force, the dryer began to turn. Allucia cried out as the dryer began to turn faster and faster, her small frame getting injured inside and outside the dryer. She thought she saw a bright light before being rendered unconscious...


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

**_M_**_eanwhile, on the _USS Voyager...

It was a quiet, boring day on the Bridge. The _Intrepid_-class ship was traveling at half-impulse through a planetary system. Captain Kathryn Janeway was talking to Commander Chakotay about nothing in particular, and every once in a while, Lieutenant Tom Paris, her pilot, would throw in his smart-ass two cents. To which he would receive a rebuttal from Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres (chief engineer of _Voyager_ and also Tom's girlfriend). Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, chief of security, merely raised an eyebrow at the emotional beings.

Ensign Harry Kim, at Operations, frowned over the sudden flux in his sensor readouts. "Captain, a wormhole just opened directly in front of us! Approximately 470 kilometers away from the deflector dish."

Kathryn immediately turned around from where she was sitting in her chair towards Harry, an intrigued but shocked expression on her face. She turned back around. "Mr. Paris, full stop," she said, standing up. She turned back towards Harry and walked up the few stairs towards his station. "Can you tell where it originates?" she asked him.

"Retuning sensors...judging by the chroniton particles and the oxygen dissipation I'd say it's a wormhole between time and space, five feet in diameter--" Harry's eyes widened at the incoming readouts. "Captain, something's emerging from the wormhole!"

Kathryn turned away from Ops and strode back down the steps to stand in the middle of the Bridge as Chakotay called "On screen!" as he arose to stand next to Kathryn.

The image of the wormhole, swirling blue and purple, appeared on screen. The Bridge was silenced as the unmistakable silhouette of a humanoid form drift out of the wormhole and into the blackness of space. The wormhole winked shut behind it. Kathryn swirled around to face the ensign at Ops once again, her actions in themselves asking for an explanation and demanding it. Harry looked up from his console, an expression of shock on his face. "It's human..."

"Beam that person directly to Sickbay!" she ordered.

Harry pressed the necessary controls. "Done."

"Tuvok, you have the Bridge. Chakotay, you're with me. You know where we'll be." Kathryn said as she and her first officer made their way to the turbolift.

_ "Doctor to Janeway,"_ came the EMH's voice over comm.

The captain stopped in her tracks, lifting her hand up as if to stop Chakotay behind her. "Janeway here."

_ "Bring Mr. Paris with you to Sickbay,"_ he said, knowing she would be on her way. "_I require his assistance."_

"Acknowledged. Janeway out." Kathryn said as Tom quickly got up from helm to join his commanding officers in the waiting turbolift.

* * *

"Mr. Paris, get me 50 cc's of tri-oxine," the Doc ordered Tom immediately upon his entering of Sickbay. "She has been exposed to the vacuum of space and is currently not breathing." Without skipping a beat, Tom was almost immediately at the Doctor's side with the necessary hypospray, and the Doc administered it just as quickly, as an alarm went off on the bed.

"My God Chakotay, she's just a child..." Kathryn whispered, putting her hand on her first officer's arm.

On the diagnostic bed lay a teenage girl. She had an alarmingly large bruise on her forehead and evidence of frozen blood along her jaw line, having originated from her eyes and been frozen in space, and some other signs of the effects of decompression in space.

A second alarm went off on the bed. "She's flat-lined!" the Doctor called. "I need a cortical stimulator!" Tom quickly handed the appliance to the Doctor, who in turn attached it to the girl's forehead. He nodded to the pilot, who pressed a control on a nearby console. The young girl's body convulsed as electricity coursed through her body. The alarm continued to sound.

"Again!" the hologram called, looking up from the girl and to Tom. Her inert body once again trembled, and there was again no response. _"__Again!"_ the Doctor called, and for a third time the girl's prone body on the surgical bed lurched, but this time the alarm stopped; she now had a weak pulse, and took an involuntary gasp for air.

Everyone in Sickbay, biological and holographical alike, collectively breathed a sigh of relief. The Doc patted Tom on the shoulder. "Good job, Mr. Paris," he said to a visibly shaken and pale pilot who had just been through his first major emergency. Tom nodded, and stepped aside to catch his own breath.

"Doctor, what is her condition?" Chakotay said walking over, Kathryn joining him from where they had quietly been observing throughout the whole emergency. Kathryn went to the girl's side, Chakotay at the head of the bed, and the HoloDoc on the other side scanning her with a tricorder. Kathryn looked at the girl worriedly for a moment before looking back up as the Doc began his report.

"She's lucky to be alive. If we had delayed any longer in getting her aboard she'd probably be dead. She is breathing now, and on her own, although her pulse is weaker than I would like it to be," he said, running the medical sensor over her. "Once I take care of the rest of her injuries, I can wake her."

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Chakotay inquired further.

The Doc nodded and went on with his analysis. "Seventeen years old, human, female. I could tell you more after a more complete physical."

Kathryn shook her head. "Let's not worry about that now. Treat her injuries and inform me of when you're going to wake her--I want to be here." She put an index finger on the console of the diagnostic bed to make her point. The Captain's mind was reeling. _How could a young human girl just pop into open space unprotected in front of the only ship in the quadrant that just happened to have members of her species on it?_ This and many other related thoughts began to run at warp speed through Kathryn's brain.

The Doctor nodded. "Aye Captain. I'll contact you." he said as he turned back to his patient.

"Captain, could I have a word with you?" A slightly more rosy Tom asked as she and Chakotay turned to leave Sickbay.

Kathryn stopped in mid-stride, nodding curtly to Chakotay to let him know to go on without her. "What is it, Lieutenant?"

"Did you happen to notice the clothes our young patient is wearing? Not exactly twentieth-fourth century attire, wouldn't you say?"

Kathryn _had_ noticed, and was, quite frankly, baffled by the girls attire. Tight fitting, shiny black pants, low cut so the girl's belly button was showing and a neon green shirt that seemed to be made from the same shiny material. She also had a tattoo on her arm and purple hair! And several metal objects in her ears...one in her nose...and one in her belly button. Her eyes widened at the girl's attire and as she realized where this was going, and moved a hand to her mouth, then moved it down to her chin. "You don't mean..."

Tom nodded. "I know this sounds far-fetched, but I think she's from the past. Harry _did_ say it was a wormhole through time and space. I know I'm jumping to conclusions Captain, but those clothes remind me of our little excursion to Los Angeles two years ago." Tom explained. "Don't you think so?"

Kathryn nodded back, then turned back towards the Doctor. "Doctor, how long before you can wake her?"

"At least five hours," he responded. "She needs to rest."

The captain nodded her agreement again, and motioned to the pilot to leave. "I'll be on the Bridge." she said as she and Tom exited Sickbay together.

* * *

_ "Doctor to Janeway."_

"Janeway here." Kathryn said, immediately sitting up straight. She had been attempting to relax in her Ready Room with a cup of coffee and a Mark Twain novel.

_ "I am ready to awaken our young visitor." _ he said.

"I'm on my way!"

* * *

Kathryn nodded to the Doctor; he in turn pressed a hypospray to the unconscious girl's neck, who was now in the standard blue Sickbay gown. All traces of makeup and jewelry were removed. What remained was a pale girl with purple hair. She had since been moved to one of the biobeds.

Her eyes fluttered open, revealing bright cerulean blue eyes, one might say even unnaturally so. Once they focused on her immediate surroundings, they widened and she bolted upright to a sitting position, startling captain and physician. She let out a frightened squeak and backed up on the biobed until she hit the end of the bed, making a loud crack as she made contact with the console. She drew her knees to her chest, whimpering.

"Now, remain calm," the Doctor said, reaching one hand out to the petrified girl. "You are all right."

"No I'm not, no-I'm-not-I'm-dead-or-dreaming-or-hallucinating..." she finally spoke at last, nearly too quickly to be understood. She buried her head in her hands and started to shake. After unsuccessfully trying to keep herself from sobbing, the shock must have become too great for her; the girl started to hyperventilate.

Kathryn looked to the Doctor with an alarmed look on her face. "Look, Miss, please calm down, we're not going to hurt you," she said, also attempting to calm the girl down.

But she only gazed back with those big frightened blue eyes, darting from the Doctor to Kathryn, and the Sickbay beyond, as though searching for something.

"Captain..." the Doctor began.

"Do it." Kathryn affirmed.

The hologram quickly applied another hypospray to the girl's neck. She promptly relaxed, collapsing onto Kathryn who had quickly moved to the head of the biobed to keep her from falling off. The Captain helped the Doctor lay the girl back down.

"That did not go well." the Doctor said.

"I'll say. I want to try again tomorrow." Kathryn said. "Contact me when you deem appropriate."

"Aye Captain," the Doctor said, nodding. Kathryn nodded back, quickly glanced at the cracked console, and turned and left Sickbay.

* * *

"Go ahead Doctor," Kathryn said, nodding. It was the next morning.

The Doctor nodded back, and again pressed a hypospray to the girl's neck. Her eyes slowly opened, widened as she saw the two concerned faces looking down at her, and tightly closed her eyes again as she began to tremble.

"Please tell me I'm dreaming," she said, taking a deep breath and clenching her hands into fists.

"I'm afraid not," said the Doctor.

"You're not going to hurt me, are you?" she whispered, her voice shaking.

The Captain the Doctor exchanged a worried look. It was the hologram who spoke first. "Miss, I'm a doctor, and the only thing I am concerned with is your health." he said, trying to sound as reassuring as he could. This seemed to calm her somewhat, and she managed to stop shaking.

"May I speak with her alone, Doctor?" The Doc nodded and walked off. "What's your name, Miss?" Kathryn asked, helping the young girl to sit up.

She took a deep breath to calm herself. "A-A-Allucia. Allucia Banks."

"My name is Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the Starship _Voyager."_ Kathryn got a blank stare in return, reinforcing Tom's theory that this girl wasn't from the 24th century.

"Um, starship?"

"I believe the Doctor is releasing you from our Sickbay later today. Why don't you come to my Ready Room then and we'll have a nice long chat." Kathryn replied with a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

All the young girl could manage was a nod.

* * *

Later on that day, Allucia made her way to the Bridge, with directions given to her by the computer. She exited Sickbay and went down the hall where the turbolift was located.

In the turbolift she was thankfully alone. She was absolutely steaming and ready to blow. The Doctor, who she had come to realize was some type of projection, had tried to make her wear a dress. A _dress_. Thankfully, she'd figured out how to deactivate him and keep him that way for a while. She had always been a quick learner with computers. She donned her former outfit and jewelry and was still extremely pissy because she didn't have any makeup.

As Allucia went to brush an errant strand of hair behind her ears, her finger grazed the large faded bruise on her forehead. She flinched a little; but knew it didn't hurt as much as it would have without some treatment. Although she had no way of knowing that it would have been completely healed if she hadn't turned him off. The nearest the teenager could figure, she was in some super-secret government hide-out that was holding her prisoner and was just trying to make her believe she was in space.

The turbolift door opened, startling her out of her conspiracy theory. She jumped slightly, took a deep breath, and walked onto the Bridge.

The teenager's eyes widened. It was huge. Nearly forgetting herself to nervousness, she quickly walked down and to the right, her hands tightly balled into fists.

She made care not to make eye contact with anyone, so she looked at the floor. She knew all eyes were on her, so to speak. She knew if she looked at anyone, or anyone at her, she might lose her temper. Even though she had a foreboding feeling she was going to lose it regardless.

And they were. All of the Bridge crew was casting sidelong glances at her. What they saw, much to their surprise, was a teenage girl, about 5'3". She was quite pale, with circles under her large blue eyes, and a large faded bruise on her forehead. And wearing one of the most outlandish outfits they had ever seen.

After what seemed like an eternity, Allucia reached the door to the Ready Room. She pressed the sensor. She heard a muffled "Come," and the doors swished open. Allucia quickly went in.

"Hello Allucia," Kathryn said. She was standing by the replicator. "Would you like anything to drink? Pick anything."

Allucia shook her head, it was more of a quick jerk, she was tense. "I'm fine," she said through clenched teeth, trying to ignore the fact that the stars she could be streaking by through the large bay windows looked oddly realistic, but then reminded herself she could probably do the same thing on her computer at home. She just didn't have high-definition plasma monitors to make it look realistic.

Kathryn frowned. "Surely, there is something you would like."

Allucia sighed, and cast her eyes towards the ceiling. "Kiwi strawberry cocktail--ya know, juice?" she said, wondering if this woman was going to pull a drink out of thin air.

"Of course." Kathryn turned to the replicator. "Computer, two drinks: one coffee, mocha, hot, and one juice, kiwi strawberry, chilled." The requested beverages appeared in a swirl of molecules. Kathryn picked up both drinks, and handed the tall glass to Allucia, who was gawking at how the beverages _had_ appeared out of thin air, then gestured at the nearby couch. Kathryn sat down. "Please, sit down."

"I'm fine." _There is _**_no_**_way whatever just appeared is real...I ain't drinking that stuff._

The Captain thought for a moment; there was so much she wanted to know, but Miss Banks was being difficult. She decided to start out simple. "Why don't you tell me about who you are and where you're from?" she suggested, taking a sip of her coffee.

Allucia sighed. This Janeway sure was persistent. "I was born in the U.S., in Montana, in 2023. Then when the parents split, I went with my ma to Brooklyn, that's in New York."

Kathryn quickly did the math in her head. "So you're from the year 2040..." Kathryn said quietly, intrigued.

The teenager crossed her arms and leaned against the wall next to the replicator. "Last time I rememba." She sighed. "Youz gonna send me home, right?"

The older woman sighed. This adolescent was reminding her of Seven when she first came aboard. Except that her attitude was worse than Seven's. Not that the former Borg had an attitude problem, it was more that she did not want to adapt at first. "Truthfully, Miss Banks--"

"Call me Lusha."

"As you like," Kathryn said, nodding. "Truthfully, Lusha, I don't think it's possible unless we are able to reopen the wormhole. And if we can't, then I'm afraid you are stuck here with us." _And I don't know who is going to be worse off--us or Miss Banks. First Seven, now possibly her?_

Allucia's face twisted into a scowl. "Stuck here? And what the _hell _is a wormhole?" She made a dismissive gesture and started pacing the room, her temper beginning to let loose. "Youz jus' like everyone else, assuming I'm somebody I'm ain't, and that I can jus' _accept dis?!"_ she said, her voice rising with everyone word. "I don't _think_ so! I don't even believe I'm on a spaceship! So why don't you lemme out of your top-secret bunka an' send me da hell home!"

Kathryn's eyes widened as she both realized her mistake and went to apologize but also at the girl's ludicrous imagination; but Allucia cut her off. "Miss Banks--"

"Don't 'Miss Banks' me!" Allucia threw her glass of juice and it shattered on the large bay window behind the Captain. "Get me da hell home! Mah Daddy is inna military and I can make sure he can put youz away for a long time for kidnappin' me once he finds out about this!"

That did it. Kathryn Janeway's Patience ran out. She stood up and fixed Allucia with one of her glares. "You are out of line, miss, and I am _not_ going to take it." Before the teenager had a chance to respond, she tapped her combadge. "Tuvok, report to my Ready Room immediately." Kathryn glared at the teenager for a moment before Tuvok walked in.

"Yes, Captain?" he inquired, emotionless as usual. He nor Kathryn noticed Allucia's momentary astonishment at seeing an alien with pointed ears until she buried herself in denial again. But it didn't last long as the Captain's next statement got her temper up again.

"Escort Miss Banks to the brig. She is out of line and is becoming increasingly hostile."

_ "What!?"_ Allucia said, half-shrieking. "I knew you wanted to lock me up!"

Tuvok nodded. "Aye, Captain." He walked over to Allucia and took her by the arm. She didn't budge, and tried to twist her way out of the security officer's grip. But it was of no use; his arms were like steel. Tuvok merely raised an eyebrow. Allucia tried another tactic. She went to punch the Vulcan, but he easily caught her fist in his hand. She decided to try one last thing. She went to kick him in the knee cap, but had hardly raised her foot when everything went black.

Tuvok picked up the unconscious teenager whom he had nerve-pinched, and left the Ready Room without a further word.

* * *

"As you all know, we have a young visitor aboard," Kathryn began the meeting about an hour later, a grim look on her face. "I spoke with her, and she was a bit difficult...to say the least. I called this meeting to discuss our options; what are we going to do with this child? Do we try and integrate her into the crew?" Kathryn couldn't help but glance at Seven as she said this. "Or do we look for a way to send her home?

"Here is some background on her; what I was able to find out before her excursion to the brig. Her name is Allucia Banks; she is a teenager, from Earth, from the twenty-first century; more specifically, the year 2040. And she thinks she's in some top secret government bunker on Earth and refuses to believe her current situation."

"Seven years before Apollo Racer was frozen," Tom commented. At the Captain's bemused glance, he explained further. "He was a pilot as well; I would visit the museum where his ship, the _Starfighter 1_ was housed and basically press my face against the forcefield in awe." Tom blushed to the tip of his ears at this admission while B'Elanna smirked behind his back. Kathryn threw a smile at Chakotay; it was easy to see him doing that.

"I believe Mister Kim may have an explanation as to how Miss Banks came to us," she said, motioning to Harry, then sitting down as the Ops officer stood. He walked to the small viewscreen in the corner of the room, a padd in his hand. Pressing some buttons on the pad, he then pressed a button adjacent to the screen and a wire diagram of the wormhole appeared.

Harry cleared his throat. "I've found that the wormhole that brought Miss Banks here was indeed through space and time." he said. "However, I cannot determine how the wormhole formed or if it is artificial or not. If it's not artificial, I believe the formation of the wormhole was a random occurrence and cannot be recreated," he continued, his statement causing surprised looks and raised eyebrows around the room.

Kathryn had a thoughtful look on her face, resting her chin in one hand. "Are you sure that it is not possible to send her home?"

"Very sure, Captain. If it's artificial, it's beyond our technology to duplicate. If she's from the 29th century, she's hiding it very well. If she's not, well, I'm really at a loss to explain how she got here without help."

The CO sighed. To her right, Chakotay spoke. "It seems as though we have no choice; she'll have to stay with us." he said.

Kathryn cast her eyes over to Tuvok. "What do you think, Commander?"

"If she were from this quadrant, I would have suggested we attempt to locate her home. However, the Commander is right. If Earth is truly all she knows, then she should stay on board. Her denial seems pretty sincere and is comparable to reactions from less-advanced cultures exposed to similar situations. As I recall, government paranoia was quite common in her time period, so her reaction is not all that surprising. Other than that, all that is needed is to teach her some discipline."

Kathryn gave a curt nod, then stood up. "Then it's decided then. She's here for the duration. Dismissed."

* * *

Later that day, the Captain escorted Allucia to her quarters. She was out of the brig on the condition, in the Captain's words, 'that she didn't mouth off to anyone.' "Welcome to your humble abode," Kathryn said as she turned around, holding her arms out to the side and bowing slightly.

"Sure is humble." Allucia mumbled, and got a mock death glare in reply. In truth, it was about the same size as her own room at home, except the extra space where she had a bathroom. The perimeter in the room was about three meters squared. On the far wall there was elevated bed in with a desk underneath, against the left wall was a small sofa with a low table. On the right wall was the entrance to the bathroom. Unsurprisingly, there were no windows, so the teenager felt they were still deceiving her. But after regaining consciousness in the brig, she decided to cooperate with these 'starship' people...for now.

"You've had a strange and tiring couple of days, Allucia." Kathryn said evenly, mentally counting to ten, then smiled. "Consider yourself under orders to get some rest. Tomorrow I've arranged for you to take a short jaunt about the ship in a small shuttle with my pilot, Lieutenant Paris, so you can see how big it really is."

Allucia merely nodded, crossing her arms, deciding she'd pick apart at that particular deception when the time came. "Rest is a luxury virtually un-be-knownst to me."

Kathryn frowned. She thought that only applied to starship captains, not teenage girls. She had to be joking. But she had noticed the dark circles under her blue eyes, her pale complexion augmenting them. "You're a young girl," Kathryn began, but Allucia cut her off.

"You try sleeping when you spend half your nights on the streets of Brooklyn," Allucia replied tersely. "I'd be lucky to get more than five hours of sleep a night."

"Goodness," Kathryn said. "How do you function like that?"

Allucia shrugged. "Caffeine, stimulants, drugs, whatever."

"I see..." Kathryn responded. She recalled the EMH telling her of all the narcotics he had to purge from her system, and how much other medicine he had to put her on to keep her from going into withdrawal. "Well, you'll be able to sleep as much as you like for the next few days. If you need anything, use the computer to contact me or the Doctor."

Her only answer was a nod, as Allucia sat down on the couch. Kathryn turned to leave.

"Thank you," the captain heard as the doors opened.

She turned around. "You're welcome," she replied. Quirking a smile, she nodded to her new ward and left the room.

After Kathryn left, Allucia let a few minutes pass and then decided she was going to test the door. It hissed open as she approached. This made her paranoid, so she decided to stay put. She was pretty sleepy anyway. In fact, she was getting pretty close to being forced to admit she was exhausted.

She explored her room a little more and discovered a small closet built into the right-hand wall, which already had some pajamas in her size...as well as what looked like some casual clothes, except this time no dresses. The teenager smirked to herself. At least they were fast learners. She grabbed a sleeveless tee and a pair of matching boxers. She might as well change. She'd been in her vinyl pants and shirt so long she was really beginning to smell.

After peeling off her clothing and putting on the less-sweaty cotton pajamas, she crawled into bed and was asleep sooner than she would have cared to admit.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

**I**t didn't seem like that much later when an insistent chirping woke her up. Allucia's first instinct was to grab her alarm clock and throw it across the room until she remembered where she was, and suddenly felt disoriented as it was still dark in her room. After cursing a few times in several Earth languages, she finally remembered she could ask the computer for what she needed.

"Computer, wha the hell is that damn noise?!" she cried.

_ "It is your door chime. You have a visitor."_

"Let 'em in!"

The doors merely opened in response. All Allucia could see was a tall silhouette in the doorway with one arm propped up on the door frame, and for a brief moment, Allucia thought her older brother might have shown up to rescue her. Instead of her brother's voice, she heard, "Computer, lights."

The teenager jumped slightly, startled that the lights just came on with just two words. She then turned to the person who had just entered her room, a lanky blond main with blue eyes and a smirk. "Who the hell are you?!" she demanded.

"I'm Tom Paris, ship's pilot. Captain Janeway wants me to take you for a ride."

"Riiiiiight." Allucia replied skeptically. She figured this would be the easiest thing to prove fake. She eyed her smelly clothes on the floor from the previous day, then looked herself over from where she was sitting cross-legged on her bed, then thought about the clothes in the closet. "Uh, any chance I can get some clothes that don't make me look like a reject?"

* * *

A little while and one replicator lesson later (not that she believed that they appeared out of thin air, she was betting it was a trick of the light), Tom led a slightly better dressed Allucia to the shuttlebay. At least this time, she had opted for flared blue jeans and a cotton tank top instead of the synthetic outfit she had shown up in.

The shuttle bay doors were already open with atmospheric forcefields in place. _Voyager_ was still in the planetary system they had picked the teenager up in. Even though she could see a swirling red and yellow gas planet with rings hanging outside, Allucia continued to bury herself in denial and seemingly logical ways they could deceive her.

As Tom and Allucia seated themselves in the _Delta Flyer_ (the latter of which was trying to figure out where they were hiding the hydraulics anchored to the ground to make the shuttle move), the former quipped, "Well, I guess you don't get space sick, eh? Otherwise you'd probably be upchucking already."

Allucia scoffed. "Strong stomachs run in mah family. Mah Daddy was a pilot before he got promoted an' now my big bro is a fighter pilot. I'd probably be on mah way to being one too if I was smartah." She turned to glare at him. "And if you guys don't lemme go soon, I'm sure they'll come lookin' for me."

"Well, they're going to be flying for quite a while. Even going the speed of light it's going to take us about fifty years to get back to Earth, and I don't think they had quite discovered that by the time you came our way." _She sure has an interesting accent, _Tom thought.

"Yeah, sure."

Tom glanced at the teen askance as he went through the pre-flight checklist. For her part Allucia seemed to be looking around and visually absorbing everything around her even though she was trying to sink into her chair with her arms crossed, as if she didn't want to be seen. "Trying to figure out how it all works?" he asked.

"Yeah, pickin' apart special effects in old movies is a habit of mine. Almost every movie is CGI now 'cept for them inner-active background props." She nodded at his control panel. "I especially like how retro your controls are, _really_ makes 'em realistic." There was no missing the sarcasm in her voice.

"I happen to have a fondness for old movies myself. Especially anything from the earlier half of the 20th century. I designed this ship from the ground up myself, and I thought they would be a nice touch."

"Man, my parents weren't even _born_ then. Hell, even mah granddaddy was still in diapers."

Tom had to chuckle at that. He finished going through the checklist and turned to the teenager. "Ready for your first spaceflight?"

Allucia smirked at him. "Sure, why not. This is one of the nicest simulators I've eva seen."

Try as he might, the pilot could not get mad at her apparent attitude. She was actually kind of amusing, especially with her thick accent. _It's no wonder she lost her temper so quickly with the Captain. I wonder if I was this bad when I was her age. _Manipulating the controls, Allucia watched as they appeared to rise off the deck of the shuttlebay and enter the vacuum of space. Tom brought the _Delta Flyer _about so that the teenager could get a broad view of _Voyager. _

She didn't look too terribly impressed, though. She tapped on the window next to her, as she was seated diagonally behind Tom at the tactical station. "The plasma monitors behind this glass are pretty slick," she said. "I can't even pick out da pixels."

Tom could only shake his head, thinking of anything he could to gain her trust and get through her thick skull that she was actually in space. Then he suddenly grinned. He had just the thing. Taking the ship a safe enough distance from _Voyager_ so that it only appeared about the size of a model ship, he stood up and gestured at his seat. "Would you like a go?"

Her face momentarily lit up before she pretended to not like the idea. "Sure. I always kicked ass when I played these video games wit mah big bro."

After she sat down, Tom briefly explained the controls to her. She did have a genuine idea of the basics of flight, and he figured that her family members must have had to be pretty decent pilots to rub off on her like they did. He was a little apprehensive about letting her take the controls, and even more nervous about what would happen when his commanding officers found out, but he could take control from another station he if absolutely had to.

As he sat down at one of the stations behind her, he could see by the reflection in the front window that she was grinning. She tweaked a control here and there. Then, without warning, she took the two joystick controls and took off. He was surprised to be pushed back in his seat, the inertial dampeners lagging for a split-second but the teenager didn't even appear to notice it.

Allucia cackled and then pulled the ship into an upside down loop; of course, nothing changed for the occupants of the shuttlecraft since it had its own gravity. From there she did a lazy eight and then a corkscrew.

The corkscrew was a little wobbly but Tom was surprised she'd even pulled off the figure eight. _This girl is a natural!_ But he had a feeling if she knew it was real, she probably would be afraid to even touch the controls.

* * *

Unbeknown to either of them, they were being observed on the main viewscreen on _Voyager's _Bridge.

"Does he have to show off every time he's not on an official mission in that thing?" B'Elanna quipped from the Engineering station.

Sitting in her command chair, Kathryn propped her elbow on one of the arm rests and rested her chin in her hand. "Of course he does. He's a pilot." She heard Chakotay chuckle next to her.

Little did they know that Tom wasn't even in the pilot's seat.

* * *

She finished the corkscrew and was about to start another when Tom stopped her. "Not bad, not bad," he said. "Want to see what I can do?"

"But this is actually fun! Besides, that las' one was wobbly and I gots to do it again." Allucia dove into the next corkscrew, not only improving on it, but going counter-clockwise this time; the first one she had done clockwise.

"Awwww, c'mon. You might pick up a thing or two."

She thought about it, and nodded. If she could pick up anything new, she could always use it against her brother the next time they played together. She moved back to one of the aft stations.

Tom grinned widely. She might be good at video games but he was the real deal. Tweaking the controls back to his preferences, he quickly ran through a tighter corkscrew than she had, followed it up with a double split 'S' reversal, a perfect figure eight, and a Cuban eight. He moved them gradually closer back to _Voyager _as he wove himself through each maneuver. And for his grand finale, he did a loop around the ship close enough for them to wave at the Bridge crew through their upper windows.

Allucia got a little dizzy at the end, and only because seeing the Bridge crew upside down but also seated gave her a little bit of vertigo. Tom brought the ship about to face the shuttlebay, but didn't dock it quite yet.

"Dude, you'd probably give mah bruddah a run for his money," Allucia commented.

"Thanks, glad to know I'm as good as a fighter pilot." Tom said as he swiveled his chair around and clasped his hands behind his head. "So what's your brother's name?" he asked. For all he knew, her brother could have been one of his childhood idols.

"Oh no youz don't. I ain't givin' out any names. For all I know, youz guys kidnapped me to get to mah dad. He's a very important man."

"You know, we're going to have to do something about that paranoia of yours."

"Just 'cause I'm paranoid don't mean youz ain't out ta get me. There is _no way _we could be airborne. Everythin' we both pulled off would be pullin' at least a few G's in real life an' I didn't feel a damn thing. So excu_uuuse_ me if I can see through every thing you throw at me."

Tom smirked. "Computer, gravity off." He stayed in his reclined position as they floated out of their seats, though he did stretch out.

Allucia didn't seemed phased at all. "Yeah, I can explain dis one too. Parabolic flight. Youz guys musta moved me when I was sleepin' from the bunka to an plane." The smirk never left her face. She pushed off the wall and did a quick somersault. "I got to do this once visitin' my old man on base. I know you can't keep this up for more than a minute."

"We'll see."

Five minutes later, they were still floating.

"So how long does a minute last in this private little world of yours?" Tom asked. For the past minute or two, she'd pulled herself into a quasi-fetal position and slowly rotated under the inertia of pulling herself into that position. He had a feeling it was starting to sink in. She turned her head to glare at him, but didn't say anything.

"If you get back into your seat, I'll turn the gravity back on." She wordlessly complied, but pushed off the ceiling so that she was hovering upright just above the floor. Sighing, Tom also returned to his seat, and a moment later they had weight again.

Allucia suddenly stood up. "I wanna go home _now. _I don't know how you pulled that gravity stunt, but there ain't no way youz are gonna brainwash me." She sighed and crossed her arms. "For all I knows, maybe my own father kidnapped me to see if I'd be level enough ta even be inna military."

Tom was about to reply when he thought the better of it as another idea came upon him. "You know what, you're right. I'm tired of this too. They don't pay me enough for this." He moved from the pilot's seat to one of the aft stations Allucia was standing next to and started punching in commands. "Give me a sec, I'll shut down the simulation, and I'll arrange for you to be taken to your father."

Allucia's eyes widened. "What made you change your mind?"

"My father's an admiral, and he did this to me once too, and I wasn't too pleased about it either. I just hope my superiors don't get too angry at me for this."

The teenager suddenly felt terrible. While she didn't live with her father anymore, she'd still grown up in a military family. She had a feeling Tom would get more shit from his father than his superiors.

Tom noticed she genuinely felt bad. Despite this, he activated the site-to-site transport and transported her directly into the shuttlebay.

As her molecules disassembled, Allucia suddenly felt paralyzed; as if her whole body had fallen asleep from leaning on it too long. She thought she was beginning to faint as the _Delta Flyer _seemed to fade away. But as quickly as the pins and needles sensation had started, it was over, and she found herself in the middle of the room Tom had called the shuttlebay earlier.

Frozen in place, she tried to process what had just happened. But she couldn't come up with a logical explanation. As she was facing the open shuttle bay doors, she saw the _Delta Flyer _approach, and began to back in. It was actually a pretty large vessel and she could tell it didn't have enough space to turn around in the bay. As she realized it was coming closer, she forced her feet to move, and moved off to the side. She never took her eyes off the _Flyer _the whole time, only stopping when she bumped into the railing on the starboard side of the bay.

As the runabout began to enter the open bay doors, Allucia heard a buzzing and noticed a blue halo surround the ship where it seemed to pass through an invisible barrier. _My God...is that really space out there? _she thought.

The _Delta Flyer _finally finished backing in, but didn't land yet. She heard a hiss come from the back of the ship. Immediately drawn to the sound, she looked that way and saw what must have been a hatch lowering down to turn into a ramp. The vessel was still hovering about five feet off the ground.

A moment later, Tom appeared, and jumped off the back of the ship and approached her. "Do you have any more conspiracy theories or are you ready to face reality now?" he asked nonchalantly.

For a moment, she could only blink slowly at him. Then she looked at the still-hovering craft. "Can...can I touch it?"

Tom gestured at it with an upward palm. "Be my guest."

Allucia tentatively reached out to touch the _Flyer. _As she made contact, she could feel the power thrumming throughout it, she almost jerked her hand back in disbelief, but at the same time, it seemed more real to her. She looked back at Tom with big round eyes.

He could only smile at her.

Feeling encouraged, Allucia decided to see if those hydraulics she couldn't find earlier were there. Crouching down, she went a little under the ship; Tom right behind her though he had to bend over a lot further due to his height. She never took her hand off the ship. Once they reached the middle, she sat down hard on her rear, legs splayed out. She had a slightly vacant expression on her face.

The pilot sat down across from her. "Are you okay?"

Allucia tore her gaze from the ship hovering above them to look at Tom. "I'm really in outer space, aren't I?" He nodded. "And how many years in the future?"

"A little over three hundred and thirty." _Is it just me, or did she start speaking normal English?_

"But we're not near Earth?"

_So she was paying attention... _"No...we were pulled clear across the galaxy by a powerful alien life form. We've been making a bee line for home ever since."

Her eyes widened again and Tom had to wonder if her eyelids were starting to get tired with all exercise they were getting.She looked around a little more. "I'm hungry."

Tom reached over and gave her shoulder a little friendly squeeze and a pat. "Let's get out from under the ship and I'll find you something to eat."

* * *

From her console in her ready room, Kathryn smiled as the duo crawled back out from underneath the _Delta Flyer._ Tom finished landing the runabout with the autopilot, and he and Allucia left the shuttlebay soon afterwards. _ I can't believe it... _she thought.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

**A**fter Allucia finally come to terms with her situation she proceeded to get her hands into all the new technologies that fascinated her. But after about a month passed, the novelty of being aboard _Voyager_ was beginning to wear off for Allucia, although she had ended joining the crew, and was given a field commission of ensign.

Since she had told the Captain she had dropped out of high school because they had given her problems and she was also from a time period where education was vastly different, after some trouble, Allucia and Kathryn had reached an agreement in that a more vocational education might be the most beneficial, with part-time studying to catch the teenager up to the twenty-fourth century. After all, half of _Voyager's _crew were provisional officers...what was one more?

Along with this came some changes to the young new ensign's appearance, since she now had Starfleet regulations to adhere to. She wasn't too happy about it, either. Most of her earrings were gone (but not forgotten) as were her nose ring and belly ring; however her tattoo was not. Her hair was also back to its original hue, which turned out to be jet black.

She entered Holodeck Two, a black mesh bag slung over her shoulder, dressed in denim shorts, a purple tank top, and sneakers. "Computer, activate program Lusha-1." A softball field appeared, in the midst of Central Park, New York City. The temperature and humidity immediately shot up to summer temperatures. As this was based on the park of Allucia's time, it was incredibly hot, with the state the ozone had been at the time. A holographic sun shone overhead in a blue cloudless sky. The one thing the teenager liked most about this new century she was thrown into was the holodecks. The replicators ran a close second.

Allucia breathed in the dusty musty odor of the field. Now it was time to begin her work out. "Computer, catcher's equipment to my preset specifications," she said, dropping her bag in front of one of the dugouts. She first took out a padd and pressed a couple of controls on it. A moment later the catcher's equipment appeared behind homeplate. Allucia smiled and dug into her bag again, producing a newly replicated softball glove.

The teenager held it in the air with two fingers and dropped it to the ground, jumped on it a couple of times, and rubbed it in the dirt until it was good and dusty. Of course when she took the glove out of the holodeck all the dust would disappear, but the damage inflicted upon it would not.

She donned the leg guards, chest pad, and helmet, and settled into her crouch behind home. "Computer, add team Valkyries." Her softball team from home appeared on the field, warming up. The opposing team was sitting in their dugout.

After warming up for a few minutes, Allucia decided against playing a game. "Computer, remove all characters." The holograms disappeared. "Add pitcher number two."

A tiny figure with brown hair appeared on the pitcher's mound. Allucia smiled. Chrissy Lorenz. The sixth grade pitcher who could match and probably even beat the high school varsity pitcher back home. It was hell to catch for her, especially since Allucia didn't have nor want a catcher's mitt. Her hand would hurt like hell after catching for her, even if the inning was only nine pitches long.

Then Allucia had a burst of inspiration. "Computer, confirm: are the safeties off?" she asked, removing her equipment.

_"Confirmed. Holographic safeties are disengaged."_ came the crisp electronic reply. Allucia smirked to herself. Normally, the the computer required a high ranking officer to disengage the safeties, but the teenager had been able to hack into the system to find away around it. As much as technology had progressed, programming languages all had the same roots and it hadn't even taken a week for her to adapt to it.

Allucia settled back into her crouch. She loved to catch without equipment, the freedom of being unburdened and easily able to move about; not to mention on a day like this it was a portable oven. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with the hem of her shirt, held her glove up, and gave a slight nod.

The pitch came and the slammed into her glove at sixty miles per hour. She grit her teeth. _Damn, that hurts but the speed is perfect. _ Allucia dropped to knees and threw the ball back, grunting softly as her bare knees hit the dirt; propping her glove on the ground she pushed herself back into her crouch.

This exchange between catcher and pitcher was going on for thirty minutes when the holographic Chrissy began pitching somewhat erratically, but Allucia had programmed that in, like the real Chrissy would be hurling when she was tiring. She was regretting taking her equipment off, since most of the balls she missed hit her legs, but she didn't want to break the steady rhythm she had fallen into.

A particularly high pitch came, and Allucia sprang up from her crouch, her knees cracking like dry kindling as she arched up and safely cradled the ball in her glove.

By now, Allucia, despite the lack of equipment, was so hot she could feel the heat radiating off of her body. She decided to take one more pitch then call it quits for the day, as her allotted holodeck time was probably almost up anyway.

The last thing she saw before blackness was the softball heading directly for her.

* * *

"She's coming around, Doc," came a voice. Allucia opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, the two figures with red and blue-shouldered uniforms slowly coming into focus. It was Tom and the Doctor.

Allucia smiled. "Did I'z oversleep?"

The HoloDoc rolled his eyes, but the pilot chuckled. "You could say that," he said, helping the girl sit up. Allucia put a hand to her temple; she was dizzy as hell. "Ensign Gerron found you on the holodeck unconscious when he went to run his Bajorian meditation program."

"So what's my souvineer?" Allucia asked.

Tom made a weird face for a moment, not knowing what she meant. Then it dawned on him, a look of comprehension spreading across his face. "Your left eye was swollen shut, it looked as though you were hit by something. What happened?" _I still can't get over that accent_, he thought. But by now he'd caught on that it wasn't her normal mode of speaking. He wondered why she faked it. If she hadn't dropped her guard a few times around the pilot-nurse and spoke normally, he never would have caught on.

"I was tryin' out da softball holoprogram I'z made. I was catchin' for the pitcher an' the last thing I rememba was the ball flyin' at my face." Allucia explained. "The holographic safeties was off and I wasn't wearing my catching gear." She looked to the Doctor. "Can I'z go now?"

"No." the Doc stated firmly. "I want to run a few more tests." he said, then walked off to get another scanning device.

"Softball is a variation of baseball, right?" Tom asked.

Allucia nodded. "Pretty much."

"Just how fast were those pitches coming, Lush?" he asked, using his own nickname he'd come up with for her.

The ensign grinned. "Fifty-five, sixty miles an hour, maybe faster."

Tom gave the teenager an incredulous look. "And you were catching without equipment. You're even crazier than me."

"Thanks," Allucia replied, still grinning.

Tom shook his head, chuckling. _For looking so delicate, this girl sure is a masochist! She'd probably get along with B'Elanna well._

The Doc returned and began scanning Allucia with another instrument. "Miss Banks, the holodecks have safety protocols for a reason. Make use of them."

"Aw, but then it ain't no fun!" Allucia whined.

"Then wear the appropriate safety equipment." the Doc retorted.

"But that's no fun either."

"Fun is not so important as safety!" the Doctor snapped. "I speak from experience."

Allucia's expression softened. Although he was a hologram, the teenager somehow knew the hologram meant what he said. "But I want to take the risk." she said quietly.

The Doctor sighed audibly, turned off his scanning instrument, and went of to retrieve another. Upon returning he scanned the impatient teenager with one last appliance. "All right Miss Banks, I have completed the physical you have managed to elude these past few weeks. You are free to go now."

"Wha?! You mean..."

"Ooo, Doc, that was sneaky," Tom put in.

"An' youz kept me busy while he was doin' it! Accomplice!" Allucia stuck her tongue out at Tom.

"Hey, I wasn't even paying attention!" the lieutenant retorted, holding his hands up in self-defense.

Allucia decided let the subject drop for now. She'd get him back. She didn't know how or when, but she would. "Anyways, what's tha damage?"

"You got clocked right here," Tom said, placing a finger between his right temple and eye on his own face. "Broke the--" he broke off as the ship convulsed for a moment.

Then Kathryn's voice came on over comm. _"Red A__lert. We are under attack. All crew to battle stations."_

Tom quickly left Sickbay without a good-bye, but that was understandable. But now, Allucia didn't know what to do, she was part of the crew, but off-duty. The ship shook again. She looked to the Doc hoping he could tell her what to do but he was busy prepping Sickbay for possible casualties.

By now Allucia herself was beginning to get a little nervous. She finally decided the best thing to do was to go back to her quarters. As she stepped out into the corridor and began to jog towards the turbolift, a low-pitched pulsing tone began to sound. The girl stopped dead in her tracks.

She recognized the sound, couldn't place it, but knew it was bad news. It wasn't until she heard voices coming from down the hall and around the corner (not to mention getting closer) that she realized it was Intruder Alert. Then she heard pounding feet right behind her. Before Allucia could turn around, she felt something, presumably a firearm, prod her in the base of her skull.

"Don't move," hissed a deep masculine voice, "or I will shoot."

Allucia held her hands out to her sides. "I ain't movin'!" she squeaked. Then, in an attempt to elude whoever was behind her, she pivoted her hip down and to the right, but cried out when the alien's grip tightened.

_ "Quiet!" _ the voice barked, and shoved her forcefully from behind. Allucia stumbled and fell to her knees. The entity behind her grabbed her right arm and Allucia felt _and_ heard an ominous pop come from her elbow, and bit back a cry. She felt the firearm butt her in the back, pushing her forward.

She could hear the murmuring of the other intruders in the group. But from what she could deduce, the individual who had a gun to her head also happened to be their leader. Allucia let out a shaky sigh. What a day she was having. She half-hoped the alien would shoot her.

* * *

_ Meanwhile..._

"Captain, we have intruders on Deck Five."

Kathryn, who had been making laps around the Bridge since the beginning of the unprovoked attack of the still-unidentified ship, quickly strode up to the upper level to join Tuvok at his station. "How many?" she asked.

"Six. And they have a hostage: Ensign Banks." Tuvok replied, indicating a monitor showing the young girl being yanked roughly by her arm.

"Security to Deck Five," she ordered, nodding to Tuvok. Tuvok nodded back and exited the Bridge.

* * *

Allucia was being half-dragged down the corridor when Starfleet officers in security colors rounded the next bend.

As soon as Allucia's captor caught sight of Tuvok and his security force, he grabbed her by the neck and yanked her to him; putting what Allucia assumed to be the same firearm that was formerly aimed at the back of her skull at her temple instead, his fist curled quite uncomfortably against her windpipe. _Feels just like home_, she thought sarcastically.

"Lower your weapons," Tuvok commanded.

"Lower yoursss or zee child diesss!" the alien snarled back, tightening his grip on Allucia's neck. She gasped for air, beginning to feel dizzy.

There was a moment of stalemate. Then Allucia's eyes rolled up into her head and her body went limp as she collapsed against the alien. The momentary surprise this caused the leader and his followers gave Tuvok and his force the time to rush the attackers. The Vulcan fired and hit the leader while his team rushed the other radicals. The incident was over and under control in less than forty-five seconds.

Tuvok ordered his officers to take them to the brig, then knelt by the prone Allucia. To his surprise, the girl opened her eyes. "Are they gone?" she wheezed.

The tactical officer raised an eyebrow, in realizing what Allucia had done. "They are indeed," he said.

Allucia stood up and nearly toppled back to the floor. The Vulcan steadied the girl. "You require medical attention."

"I can make it to Sickbay." she replied quietly.

"Are you sure?"

Allucia nodded. "It's just down the hall." Tuvok nodded and walked off. It wasn't until he entered the turbolift that he absently noted that the teenager had spoken without her odd accent.

She slowly walked down the hall, placing her good arm on the wall for balance. Her head was spinning; she hadn't needed much help in pretending to pass out. _ What a day I'm having, first being beaned by a softball and taken hostage in the same day. It's quite ridiculous._

The teenager could barely see for all the stars spinning around her head by the time she reached the Sickbay doors. They swished open and she stumbled in, leaning against the nearest biobed. Her chest felt heavy as well. She lifted one leg up onto the bed and rolled herself on.

"Hey Doc you have another visitor..." Allucia whined. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for a long, long time.

"What is it now, Miss Banks?" the Doctor asked with an impatient sigh, coming over with a tricorder. Opening it, he began to scan her.

"Remember how we had an intruder alert a few minutes ago?"

"Yes..." he said, frowning over the tricorder readouts.

"Well, their former hostage, she can barely breathe after being held awkwardly by the neck, and heard a nice pop come from her elbow as well during the ordeal." Allucia rasped.

The Doc's eyes widened as he realized and deduced that Allucia was the aforementioned hostage. Her aloof manner when she came in had him assume otherwise. But with the day she was having, it was understandable. "Well, that would certainly mandate a visit to Sickbay," he said, walking over to a nearby cabinet and loading a hypospray. "You have a dislocated elbow and a bruised trachea." He pressed a hypospray loaded with tri-oxine to her neck. "This will help you breathe." he said. Allucia immediately felt better as the weight in her chest seemed to lessen. She closed her eyes then felt a sharp pain in her elbow, and another pop.

"_**Owwww!**_ You coulda warned me first, ya jerk!" Allucia squeaked, rubbing her elbow and sitting up. She immediately laid back down again from dizziness.

"If I had, you would not have cooperated."

She shrugged. "You're probably right. Can I go now? I really do feel better Doc. I'm sure you don't want me cluttering up your Sickbay." she bartered, sounding hoarse.

"On the contrary, I want to keep you overnight for observation in case you go into respiratory distress again." Additionally, the psychiatric aspects of his program wanted to find out why she kept switching between dialects of Federation Standard as quickly as breathing.

Allucia would have let out an exasperated sigh had she been able to, so she settled for a pout instead, and looked to the left as the Sickbay doors opened with a hiss. It was the Captain. She immediately walked over to where Allucia was laying, who immediately sat up again despite her spinning head upon seeing Kathryn.

"Are you okay, Allucia?" Kathryn asked, placing a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder.

The ensign nodded weakly, putting a hand to her head to stop the spinning. "I think so. Just scared senseless is all." she said hoarsely.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "She comes in suffering from respiratory distress and says she's fine. _Teenagers."_ he snorted, rolling his eyes.

Allucia smirked in return, and Kathryn shook her head with a smile. "Report, Doctor."

"Miss Banks had a dislocated elbow and has a bruised trachea. I am about to treat the latter." He turned to his patient. "Please lay down again, Miss Banks." She rolled her eyes, but complied. The doctor ran the regenerator over the girls throat for a minute, casting a blue light, then shut it off. "That is all."

"Can I leave now?" Allucia repeated, as she once again pulled herself to a sitting position. Her voice was a little less hoarse. "I don't wanna spend the night in Sickbay."

Kathryn could see the teenager's desire to get out of Sickbay. After all, she had spent most of her waking time here today. "Oh, Doctor, I'm sure there's someway to monitor her from here, isn't there?"

"I suppose so," he replied, rolling his eyes again. He removed an object from a nearby cabinet. "This cortical monitor will monitor your lifesigns," he said, attaching it to the base of Allucia's skull, behind her ear. She nodded in reply, giving him an impatient look. "Yes, you can go," he said, giving up at last. "Just be easy on your elbow, it's liable to dislocate again." Allucia nodded again. She felt like what a certain teacher used to call a 'bobble-head doll.' The thought made her happy and sad at the same time; she was so homesick...

"Allucia, care to join me for lunch?" Kathryn asked the girl. The ensign bobbled in reply.

They exited Sickbay, and began walking down the hall to the turbolift. "So Ensign, I understand that you've had a rather tumultuous day."

Allucia snorted. "You could say that." she said, looking at the floor. "Captain," she added respectively, straightening up as they entered the turbolift.

"Deck Two." Kathryn told the computer. "What happened?"

"Well I made a softball holoprogram and wanted to try it out." Allucia began. "After a while, I took off my safety equipment -- I'm a catcher -- and got beaned in the head by a wild pitch. Which reminds me... are you sure you don't mind eating with a sweaty softball player? I could stop by my quarters to clean up."

Kathryn shook her head. "It's quite all right," she said as the turbolift doors opened. "Besides, you don't smell _that_ bad." A shocked expression appeared on Allucia's face for a moment until she realized the Captain was joking. Kathryn gave the younger girl a teasing push on the shoulder as they entered the Mess Hall, Allucia giggling at how she'd been so foolish.

* * *

"You poor girl, _what_ a day!" Kathryn sympathized, hearing the teenager's version of the day's events.

Allucia nodded her total agreement. "I felt like some outside force wanted to torture me." she said while rubbing at the area around the appliance on her neck. "Damn this thing is itchy... yeah, just one of those days, I guess." She removed her big bowl of macaroni and cheese from the replicator, and Kathryn her own baked potato with all the fixings from the adjacent replicator, and the two found a place to sit.

The teenager promptly shoved a large mouthful of mac and cheese in her mouth, then made a face, then swallowed. "Fourteen varieties and they still can't get plain macaroni and cheese right." she muttered.

Kathryn smiled, remembering a pilot with a similar complaint. Which brought up the next subject. "So Allucia, how are your piloting lessons going?" Kathryn asked.

"Pretty good. Currently Lieutenant Paris is teaching me atmospheric piloting; or more accurately, we just finished it. I dunno what we're doing tonight."

Kathryn looked up in surprise from her potato. "Already?" she asked. _He wasn't kidding when he said she was a natural._

Allucia nodded. "Yup; he says I'm picking everything quicker than he thought I would. It's difficult though. I never thought there were so many atmospheric conditions to learn, and what to do when you encounter them."

Kathryn chuckled. "Don't worry. Tom says if you keep whatever you're doing now up, you'll be ready to fly a real shuttlecraft by the end of the month."

The ensign's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Really?" she asked, a big grin spreading across her face.

"Yes," Kathryn replied. "Have you been working on starship piloting as well?"

"Mm-hmm. Except I haven't worked on atmospheric piloting for that yet."

"That's understandable. Piloting a starship through an atmosphere is a very delicate operation and is a very big responsibility." Kathryn said. She smiled wryly. "Most starships don't, however. They're entirely too big. But _Voyager_ has specifications as such."

"Big responsibility...I can imagine," Allucia replied, finishing her rather large bowl of macaroni and cheese. Kathryn was always surprised at how much Allucia could eat (and the amount of time she could eat it in) and not appear to gain anything. _Must be her youthful metabolism._

Kathryn finished the last of her baked potato. "I'm glad you know," Kathryn said grinning as she and Allucia both stood to bring their empty dishes to the recycler, "because Tom doesn't seem to." The women shared a laugh as they deposited the dishes into the recycler.

Allucia quickly looked at the chronometer on the Mess Hall wall. "Oh fu--excuse me Captain, but I have a shift in Engineering in fifteen minutes and I gotta get ready. Thanks for lunch!" she said very quickly, waving to Kathryn as she bolted out of the Mess Hall.

Kathryn shook her head. This girl reminded her of herself once upon a time...


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

Allucia trudged into her quarters about nine o'clock that evening and collapsed on the couch. She could be too nice sometimes. She she had volunteered to clean the warp plasma manifolds in order to impress Lieutenant Torres. And now she was _sore_. _Boy, I really gotta get back into shape._

Just as her eyes were beginning to close, her combadge chirped. _Talk about timing._

_ "Paris to Banks."_

Allucia tapped her combadge. "Banks here," she mumbled.

* * *

Tom raised an eyebrow on the other end. _Was that English?_ "You're late for your piloting lesson," he said, punching commands into the wall console outside Holodeck Two to modify the program. He was late as well, so he wasn't one to criticize; he had made a little detour to Engineering on his way from the Bridge.

There was some muttering on the ensign's end, then something comprehensible. _"__I'll be right there. Banks out." _ Then the channel closed as Allucia closed her end.

A few minutes later, a disheveled teenager came jogging down the hall, her hand scratching something on her neck. "I'm sorry," she said, partly out of breath. "I was working in Engineering and had just gotten back."

Tom sniffed the air and made a face. "Cleaning plasma manifolds?" he asked, and got a dirty look in return.

"Yes," Allucia replied. "I volunteered."

"You _volunteered?" _Tom asked in disbelief as he and his student entered the Holodeck and boarded the holographic shuttle craft from the holographic shuttlebay. They took their seats; Allucia in pilot and Tom in co-pilot.

The former nodded. "I dunno why. Just too nice, I guess."

"Yeah, but that's a good thing."

Allucia shrugged, then yawned. "I suppose. What's up for today?" her hand went back to her neck and scratching the area around the monitor.

"Flying through moving debris. Any kind: asteroids, space junk, that type of thing." Tom replied. Allucia nodded and went through the pre-flight checklist, then pressed the necessary controls for take off. The shuttlecraft lifted off, and smoothly exited the shuttlebay. "Lush, I do believe that is your best takeoff yet." Tom remarked when they were clear.

"Thank you," the ensign replied, talking through her yawn. "It's amazing what people can do when they're sore, tired, and not seeing straight." She threw Tom a lopsided smile, as it was all she could muster through her fatigue, then yawned again.

Tom looked at his student for a moment. "You sure you're up to this?"

"Mm-hmm." Allucia said with a nod. "I've gotten through school on no sleep..." She paused to yawn again. "...this is nothing..."

"If you say so, Ensign." Tom replied, still not believing her. He looked out the shuttlecraft window and saw the asteroid field he'd programmed in. "Okay, give me shuttle control," he said, leaning in front of the console in front of him and beginning to press controls. This is how their lessons usually went, Allucia taking off, Tom demonstrating the day's lesson, then Allucia repeating what Tom had taught.

Tom explained everything and anything Allucia would need to know in order to pilot through debris. He made it as boring as he possibly could as they flew through the asteroid field; and for a good reason.

The older pilot finished his monologue as the shuttlecraft exited the debris field, and looked to his left. As he expected, Allucia had fallen asleep. He shook his head and smiled, then reached over and tapped the sleeping teenager on the shoulder. "Hey shortie."

Allucia jumped, her eyes popping open. Her eyes clouded over for a moment with anger--or was it sadness? Tom couldn't tell, for she had slipped on a mask he himself often wears. The teenager composed herself, then spoke. "I'm sorry--" she began to stammer.

"It's okay. I purposely bored you to sleep." Tom replied. "Now I'm ordering you to your quarters to rest."

She opened her mouth to say something, then thought the better of it, the expression on her face changing to gratitude. "Thank you," she said, standing up. Tom stood as well.

"End program." he said. The hologrid shimmered into vision. "No problem. You've had a bad day."

"So I've been told," Allucia muttered. "Anyway, thanks again," Allucia said as they exited the holodeck.

"No thanks needed. You obviously need the sleep and rest more than the Captain needs her coffee."

Allucia giggled. "G'night Tom, and please tell B'Elanna the same."

"Will do. 'Night." he said. Allucia waved and began walking down the hall. Tom turned and went into the adjacent holodeck where Sandrine's was running. It was still early, so there were hardly any people there yet. The pilot settled into his usual booth to wait for his girlfriend. She wasn't due until 2215, so Tom was a half an hour early since he'd let Allucia off the hook.

As his luck would turn out, the pilot didn't have long to wait. Much to Tom's surprise, B'Elanna walked in a few minutes later. The half-Klingon was equally surprised to see Tom there.

"Tom--" B'Elanna began, a bit startled.

"'Lanna--" Tom started simultaneously. Then they broke off at the same time, chuckling. "You first," he said, as he scooted over in the booth to make room for the half-Klingon.

B'Elanna slid in. "Everything went well today, some things quicker than expected. Lusha cleaned those conduits quicker than anyone I've ever seen. She even volunteered."

"Yeah, she told me." Tom said. "But not in as so many words."

The petite engineer snickered. "Anyway, did the lesson go well? You're here early too."

"There was no lesson. She was so tired when she got there, I just put her to sleep purposely with the lesson and ordered her back to her quarters for rest."

B'Elanna nodded in understanding. "She's a hard worker."

Sandrine came over. "I am sorry, _mon ami,_ what would you like to eat?"

"We'll wait Sandrine," Tom replied, "we're waiting for friends." The Frenchwoman nodded and walked off. Tom and B'Elanna chatted for a few more minutes until two certain high-ranking officers walked in.

"Hello, Tom, B'Elanna," Kathryn said, sliding into the booth across from the two. B'Elanna cast a quick glance at the trailing Chakotay; her engineer's eye detected that he hesitated ever-so-slightly before sitting next to Kathryn. B'Elanna suppressed a smile.

Sandrine came back over and took their orders. While chatting over dinner, the topic turned back to the day's events, and in particular, the intruders.

"Lusha was the hostage?!" B'Elanna asked, shocked. She'd heard there had been a hostage, but she had never heard who. "No wonder she volunteered..." she said quietly, then thought for a moment. "You know what I think we should do? Do something nice for Lusha, like a party or something."

Tom nodded. "I agree. She's still adjusting to being in this time and I think she feels a little lonely and homesick. I mean, there's nobody remotely her age on the ship." Tom and B'Elanna turned to Kathryn and Chakotay, who in turn looked at each other.

"He makes a good point. What do you think, Kathryn?" Chakotay ask.

Kathryn nodded her head, then huddled everyone together to begin their planning.

* * *

_ Meanwhile..._

** Personal Log, Ensign Allucia Banks. **

** What a crappy day. To summarize: beaned in head by softball (well that could be good too), taken hostage by intruders, and smelly --and I mean **_**smelly**_**-- from my duty shift in Engineering -- I volunteered to clean the warp plasma conduits. **

** I didn't even see the aliens the whole time. Just got this impression...well more than that, he was practically strangling me! Anyway they were big and bulky people. Lunatics too. Tomorrow I'll probably be briefed on it... lovely... well that's all, good night.**

"End log." Allucia said. She had given the whole dialog laying on her stomach on the couch, one arm over the side. She didn't even want to get up to shower, but she couldn't stand her obscene odor. After rolling over onto her back and stretching, she dragged herself to her feet and staggered over to her closet bathroom, totally grossed out by the smell of warp plasma.

When Allucia emerged from the now-steamy bathroom, she noticed a blinking light on her console; she had a message. She quickly skimmed it: debriefing at 0800. Allucia groaned, slapped her console shut, and climbed into bed.

* * *

Allucia sat straight up in bed with a shriek, doused in a cold sweat. She calmed somewhat when she realized she was no longer dreaming. She had been having nightmares, about her experiences earlier. The nightmare was beginning to fade, but Allucia did remember flashes of the leader's face.

The dimming memory reminded her of a hybrid between a Cardassian, a Hirogen, and a Tellarite, her mind filling in images to fit the context (even though Morn isn't bad). She knew about them from her xenobiology texts; she had been studying before she'd made her trip to the holodeck. Xenobiology was one of the few subjects that kept her attention.

After unsuccessfully trying to fall back to sleep, the teenager gave up altogether. The cortical monitor on her neck wasn't helping things either. She checked the chronometer and saw that only forty-five minutes had passed. Allucia redressed in some civvies, pulled her hair into a high ponytail, and left the room.

* * *

"And then, when she comes in--" Kathryn broke off as she heard the jingle of the door open and saw a tired raven-haired ensign carrying a padd walking in. She sat herself at the bar and ordered a drink. She had her back turned to those who were her officers, friends, and her family. "Allucia is here--not a word."

_ "What?!"_ Tom said, incredulous.

"I'll go talk to her," offered Chakotay, who immediately saw the problem. "I think I know what is wrong." He got up and took a seat next to the girl hunched over at the bar like she was some barfly.

As the first officer sat down, Sandrine was handing Allucia an ice cream float loaded with chocolate syrup. "That looks good, what flavor is it?"

Allucia jumped a little, startled, and spoke quietly. "Oh. Hello. Black cherry soda with chocolate ice cream and syrup." She had noticed her senior officers were also in the restaurant, and had decided not to push her luck by trying to get alcohol.

"Sounds like you're trying to stay awake," Chakotay said, noting her bloodshot eyes, and the ever-present, but darker circles under them. Allucia nodded. "Bad dreams?"

She nodded again, scratching her neck as she did so. "This thing on my neck isn't helping either," Allucia said, craning her neck to the side slightly so Chakotay could see the monitor.

"Yeah, I hate those too. You would think, with the level of technology, they would have found a solution to the never-ending itching." Allucia laughed softly, took a sip of her float, and sighed. "Do you want to talk about your dream?" he asked at last.

Allucia nodded for a third time after a moment; she trusted Chakotay, so she proceeded to tell him about her dream. Chakotay listened intently; and when the young girl had finished, he leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. Then he spoke.

"I think since you never saw the intruders, your subconscious can't stand the fact that it doesn't know what it's afraid of; the unknown, and that's what's scary, if not a bit redundant. I think once you face them again, the issue will be resolved." he explained.

"Hmph. Well, I'll do my best, I guess," was all she said with a sigh, digging her spoon into a cup and drawing up some ice cream.

"Would you like to join the rest of us?" Chakotay asked, motioning to where Tom, B'Elanna, and Kathryn were sitting, still talking.

"Sure," Allucia replied. She picked up her glass and followed Chakotay to the others.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

**E**xcept for the debriefing Allucia had in the morning, she had the rest of the day off, Captain's Orders.

Allucia walked into the Conference Room. She was the first one there, a few minutes early; she hadn't been able to get back to sleep that night, and was a bit frumpled. She was standing at the window watching the stars streak by when she heard the doors open again. Allucia turned around. "Good morning, Captain."

Kathryn looked up from the padd she had been reading. "Oh! Good morning, Ensign." she said, a bit startled. "I didn't expect anyone to be here so early."

"Sorry," Allucia said quietly, "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," Kathryn returned. "Punctuality is good, even if you're early." She smiled, then joined Allucia at the window. "It's beautiful, isn't it. I have not one time tired of watching the stars fly by. Especially since with every star that passes, we get closer to home."

"They never cease to amaze me," Allucia said. "I've never been able to see the stars like this, not before I came here." She sighed sadly.

"Still homesick?" Kathryn gazed at Allucia as she said this, and realized something. She was talking without her "Brooklyn" accent. This lead to the further realization that she was talking to the real Lusha, and the other side she showed to everyone was nothing but a facade. It made sense, really. Allucia had told Kathryn that she had moved to New York when she was fourteen, having lived most of her life in Montana. It reminded her of Tom, when he had come aboard.

"More than ever." Allucia sighed again. Lately she'd been getting depressed from homesickness; hence the "workout" on the holodeck. In fact, she was actually glad she got pegged in the head with a high speed softball, even if it only dimmed the pain for a little bit. But there was also the fact she was so tired she was basically a zombie. Allucia didn't trust herself to fall asleep for fear that the nightmares would return. And the fact that the damned cortical monitor was on her neck, and Allucia was so tempted to take it off...her thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened again and the remainder of the senior staffed filed in. Kathryn and Allucia wordlessly ended their conversation and took their seats.

"Good morning everyone. Let's get right down to business. Tuvok?" Kathryn began the meeting, matter-of-factly, returning her thoughts to the present. The Chief of Security had questioned the intruders, so now they knew a little bit about them.

Tuvok nodded and got up and walked to the viewscreen in the corner of the room. He activated it. "The intruders are known as the Klaamox." The image on the screen showed a thin and sleek ship that resembled a Klingon _d'k'tahg_. "The particular group that boarded _Voyager_ is the center of the sect that overthrew their government. Their main purpose is to conquer ships and steal their technology; they didn't believe their own government is putting enough research into the development of new technologies."

The Vulcan pressed another control on the screen, and a picture of the alien leader appeared. Allucia just barely repressed a shudder at the sight of him, but did pale considerably. The alien had a reptilian look; he had a ridge that ran the middle of his face and down his neck. His eyes were green and slit like cat eyes; his nose appeared to be two slits on either side of the ridge in the middle of his face; his mouth full of sharp crooked yellow teeth, with black lips. His scaly skin was a forest green, and had straight black hair that started at the top of his skull and was bound into a braid.

"This is the Klaamox leader, Xamos." Tuvok was saying. "As a result of his sect's coup d'etat, there are many such vessels in this area. We are not in their space; but on the fringes of it. What we encountered was a scout ship." The image on the screen changed to security footage Allucia collapsing against the alien. "We were quickly able to overcome the invading party due to the quick thinking and exemplary acting skills of Ensign Banks. I myself thought she had indeed rendered unconscious." he finished, nodding to Allucia.

"I was still in Sickbay when the Captain called Red Alert. Not knowing what to do being in Sickbay, I decided it would be best to return to quarters." Then Allucia went on with her testimony, up into the part when she returned to Sickbay. "Additionally, my 'passing out' is something I learned while living in the City. Takes a lot to survive on the streets there, despite the so-called NYPD."

"That was good thinking Allucia," Chakotay commented, some heads nodding with his own.

Allucia shrugged and blushed. She didn't see what the big deal was. "Didn't need much help."

Kathryn smiled. "Is there anything else?" she said, looking around. When no one responded, she gave a curt nod. "Dismissed."

Everyone got up and filed from the room. Allucia heard Harry call her name and hung back. "Hello," she said quietly.

"Hi. Me, B'Elanna, Tom, Seven, and a few other people are having a volleyball game later, when we're all off-duty. Would you like to join us?"

Allucia smiled weakly, then yawned. "Sure, what time?"

"2000 hours, Holodeck Two."

"I'll be there. Captain Janeway has given me the day off, so I'm going to try and relax...if I'm late give me a buzz."

Harry nodded. "Will do. Hope you feel better."

"Thanks." By then the the two had reached Ops. "Later." Allucia said, entering the turbolift. The doors closed. "Deck Five." The monitor was coming _off_.

Upon entering Sickbay, she found the Doctor off. "Activate EMH."

"Please state the nature--oh... it's you." he said upon seeing Allucia. She didn't respond, but instead pointed to the device on her neck. The hologram rolled his eyes. "Oh, very well." He went over and removed the device from the sleep-deprived girl's neck. "Better?"

"Much. Thank you." Allucia replied, immediately setting to scratching her neck with a vengeance. She planned to give it a good scrub later. "And while I'm here, can you give me something to help me sleep? I didn't have a good night, to say the least."

"Of course." The Doctor retrieved a hypospray and a moment later pressed it to Allucia's neck. "You'll be more than ready to sleep by the time you reach your quarters."

"Thanks Doc," she said, yawning. "I'll try not to come back for at least twenty-four hours."

"Let's hope so."

Allucia snickered as she left Sickbay, and walked down the hall and into the turbolift. "Deck Six." As the turbolift began its descent, she could just barely keep her eyes open. Just when the teenager was about to close her eyes and take a catnap against the turbolift wall, the doors opened with a hiss. She quickly walked to her quarters and collapsed on the couch.

* * *

_ "Kim to Banks." _ was the next thing Allucia heard.

Her eyes popped open. She slapped her combadge. "Banks here. Harry, I'll be there in five minutes."

She heard Harry chuckling over comm. "_Okay--see you then."_

"Harry?" Allucia began again.

_ "Yes?"_

"Beach volleyball, right?"

_ "You got it. Kim out."_

Allucia quickly got out of her rumpled uniform and changed into a newly replicated purple bathing suit and a bright lime green tank top and cut-off jean shorts over it. She'd replicated a whole pair of jeans just so she could make cut-offs. Good thing she could recycle the energy from the scraps. The teenager ran out the door barefoot.

When the ensign reached the holodeck, only Tom, B'Elanna, and Harry were waiting outside. Allucia shot Harry a questioning glance. "Everyone else cut out on us." he said.

Allucia grinned. "Heh heh heh..."

B'Elanna was gazing at Allucia's arm. "Is that a birthmark?" she asked.

"Huh?" Allucia said, then looked at her arm. "Oh, this is a tattoo."

"Tattoo?" B'Elanna and Harry said in unison.

Tom frowned. "Yeah...like Commander Chakotay has...aren't you a little young for one of those, Lush?"

"It was part of an initiation procedure." Allucia replied flatly. She obviously didn't want to dwell on the subject.

Tom shrugged, then got worried as Allucia returned her attention to the holodeck wall console. "I don't like that look on her face..." Tom said. "It reminds me too much of the look on my sisters' faces when they had me in for some horrific plan when I was little."

"Oh, come on Tom, you're not afraid of a teenage girl, are you?" B'Elanna teased.

"He should be." Allucia's grin grew wider.

"I know for a fact that teenagers are to be feared and respected. Especially those of the female gender." the pilot replied.

"Are we gonna play or what?" Harry asked.

Allucia turned to Harry. "What about Seven?"

Harry blushed. Allucia was very perceptive. "She said it was 'irrelevant.'" he said, shrugging and blushing.

"Why am I _not_ surprised?" Tom commented.

Allucia went over to the holodeck wall console and started punching stuff in. "What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Making corrections." Tom and Harry shot worried glances at each other. B'Elanna smirked. She didn't know what Allucia had in mind, but she knew the guys weren't going to like it.

Allucia finished whatever she was doing, and they entered the holodeck, right onto holographic sand. It was at least ninety degrees Fahrenheit out. "She still has that look on her face—_**yeow**__!" _ Tom said, hopping from one foot to the other. Harry cried out and did the same. They removed their tank tops and stood on them despondently while B'Elanna and Allucia collapsed to the sand, laughing hysterically.

"Some of you 24th-century types are so _wimpy!" _Allucia said through her giggles.

"The look on their faces..." B'Elanna added through her own giggles. "But you _did_ get them to take their shirts off."

"'Lanna..." Tom whined.

"Tom, Kessik had a summer climate all year round--and Klingons like the heat, remember?" B'Elanna said, still through giggles. She knew she was going to like this.

"Guys, quit whining, let's play!"

* * *

After the quite enjoyable volleyball game during which B'Elanna and Allucia _crushed_ Harry and Tom, Allucia walked into her quarters tired, arms bruised, but content. She walked over to the replicator.

"Computer, five grilled cheese sandwiches: American, cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss, and nacho on wheat bread, hot." The requested sandwiches appeared. "Skim milk, cold, one liter." Allucia removed the food and beverage from the replicator and threw herself on the couch, gave an exasperated sigh, then returned to the replicator.

"Computer, novel _Interview with the Vampire_, padd form." It was an old title, about fifty, no three-hundred fifty, years old, but she liked the classical fiction from the latter part of the 20th century. It was so dark and twisted. The requested padd appeared. Allucia took it and returned to the couch. By the time she finished her sandwiches and milk, she had just finished Chapter One. She saved her place and dumped her dishes in the recycler.

Allucia didn't feel any better though. She sighed, resigned, and plopped down stomach first onto her bed, wincing as her full stomach made impact. She reached over to the nightstand, opened the drawer and took out a black folded piece of leather.

Her wallet. The one that had been in the back pocket of her pants when she came to _Voyager_. Allucia opened her wallet, and took everything out one at a time.

Her bootleg subway keycard. Her social security card. School ID, first aid certification, library, and discount cards. Five dollars and some change, and even the name tag from where she used to work. Allucia flipped the wallet upside down and shook it. Pieces of paper fluttered down.

Three movie ticket stubs; about five receipts for the same thrift book store in the mall. Allucia gave it one good last shake. One last object fluttered out, missing the bed and falling to the floor. With a heavy heart, she leaned over and picked it up. She knew exactly what it was.

Her prom picture. Of her and her prom date, Eric. They hadn't been a couple for very long when they went to the prom. In fact, before that, he was just one of the guys that hung out with her friends. She idly wondered why she couldn't remember most of the prom...for her, it was only about two months ago, though the Doctor did mention to her that she'd come aboard with a concussion, which could explain a bit of memory loss. In fact, the day the young teenager had come to _Voyager, _was the same day the pictures arrived; Allucia cut out a photo, stuffed it in her wallet, then went downstairs to do laundry.

Allucia got up and walked over to her wall console and put the picture in the computer; a moment later it appeared on the display. Then she sent it to the replicator, telling it to separately replicate a larger photo and frame to match. Afterwards, she set it on her nightstand and fell asleep gazing at it.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

**T**he shuttlecraft glided perfectly out of _Voyager's_ shuttlebay and into the void of space. Tom clapped. "Well done, Lush!" he said, grinning.

Allucia blushed, manning the controls. "Thank you Lieutenant," she said timidly. "This doesn't feel much different from the holodeck, though."

"Of course not," he replied. "Except here the safeties aren't on."

"Yeah...what are the coordinates of that moon again?"

"Bearing 347.745."

"Thank you." Allucia pressed a few more controls. "Going to Warp Three." There was a slight lurch as the _Sacajawea_went to warp. Allucia sat back in her seat and yawned after putting the shuttle on autopilot. "Computer, ETA to Lumox VII."

_ "Four hours, seven minutes."_

"Now what?" Allucia asked.

"Hmmmmm... usually I'm on shuttle missions with B'Elanna...so pretty much of what I usually do is thrown out the window and--"

"Oh, my virgin ears!" the girl wisecracked. Tom burst out laughing.

"I'm gonna go get a snack," Allucia said, getting up and heading towards the rear of the shuttle where the replicator was located.

"So how's life on _Voyager_ been for you, Lush?" Tom called towards the back, craning his neck backwards.

"It's okay, having lost its novelty and all. I'm still pretty homesick though." Allucia replied, returning with an enormous plate containing various kinds of cookies and a glass of milk.

"I know exactly--a snack?!"

"Yup. Want some?"

"Sure." Tom took an Oreo and stuffed it in his mouth. "What was life like back home?" he said while chewing, slightly mumbling.

"Boring. Eat, sleep, wake up, school, eat, make trouble, eat, work, sleep, make more trouble, eat, sleep. My circle of life."

Tom frowned. "I would think someone like you would be out having fun."

"Fun?" Allucia snorted. "I barely know the meaning of the word. In the spring I used to play softball, but I quit because my coach was being unfair, and never letting me catch," she said, taking a swig of her milk while Tom went to get his own. "I had a job--needed cash to have fun, you know? Well, at least the roller derby was fun..." she continued, gazing out the window forlornly at the stars streaking past.

"Roller derby?" Tom knew the term, as obsessed with the twenty century as it was. "You mean that was still around?" Allucia broke out of her semi-trance to see that Tom had returned.

"Yeah, it had a bit of a rebirth in the early twenty-first century," Allucia said, nodding. "A lot of the girls I hung out with were on my team, and my prom date a few months ago I met at one of the bouts." She paused to stuff a chocolate chip cookie in her mouth. "You would like him--he wanted to be a pilot too--flying theoretical aircraft." She smiled and shook her head, though she was fibbing a bit. He was more interested in getting high with drugs as opposed to aircraft. "Lunatic." Allucia took an oatmeal raisin while Tom took a chocolate chip.

"Not recommended," Tom said. "You might turn into a giant salamander."

Allucia burst out laughing. "Not good." Her tone turned serious again. "Sometimes I miss my friends, but I miss my family more."

For the next hour or so, Allucia and Tom talked about whatever subject popped up, and went through three more plates of cookies and ten more glasses of milk between the two of them. Allucia burped loudly, and stuffed the last cookie on the last plate in her mouth.

"Excuse me!" she exclaimed, spewing some crumbs.

"Good one."

"Thank you." More crumbs issued forth.

Tom burped, though not quite as well as Allucia. "Excuse me."

"Mine was better."

"Shut up."

"You know, talking with you, and being with you...you remind me of my big brother..." Allucia said quietly, a faint smile on her face, a smile of remembrance.

Tom smiled back. "You remind me a little of my sisters, even though they were older than me."

Allucia giggled. "I can imagine," she said, "you as a four-year-old being tied to a chair for a tea party with stuffed animals or being a makeup tester."

"What?! Did Harry tell you about that?!"

"No," Allucia said with genuine innocence. "But that is probably something I would've done if my brother wasn't bigger than me." Then her eyes lit up in realization. "You mean your sisters actually did that to you?" she asked, giggling.

"Yes..." Tom replied, trying to frown and be serious, but failing miserably. "Yes, but--" Tom broke off as something beeped on his console. "Sensors show a ship approaching at Warp Seven. They'll intercept us in four minutes."

Allucia immediately paled. In fact, the color drained from her face so quickly that Tom thought that it had, in fact, been drained. She didn't move at all for a moment; then, remembering herself she spoke. "Is it Klaamox?" she asked quietly.

Tom rechecked his sensors. "Yes--the very same ship we 'paroled'...do you want me to take over?" he asked, seeing the terror in Allucia's eyes. After all, training missions should only go so far.

Allucia's mind was in a whirlwind. She wanted to stay at the helm, she had to get over her fears. Yet Tom had more experience behind him, and should they find themselves in a difficult situation, they would need that experience. Allucia made her decision. "I'll stay here, if anything goes wrong it's just a matter of swapping seats."

Tom gazed at Allucia to see if she meant what she was saying. Her outward demeanor was calm, almost Vulcan. Except her eyes betrayed how she was really feeling: panicked, terrified, and confused all at the same time. Tom smiled a comforting smile. "Yes ma'am," he drawled.

Allucia looked up from her console for a moment and flashed Tom a quick smile, albeit nervous.

"They're dropping out of warp," Tom reported.

"Dropping out of warp and slowing to impulse." Allucia replied.

"They're doing the same and hailing us."

"Open channel." Allucia commanded. She swallowed and took a deep breath. The alien appeared on the screen, the same alien who had taken Allucia hostage over a month ago. She recognized him from the vid, it was a face not easily forgotten.

"I am Ensign Allucia Banks of the shuttle _Sacajawea,"_ Allucia began, swallowing the bile and fear that was beginning to rise in her throat. "We have traced your ship changing course to rendezvous with us. Is there anything we can do for you?"

_ "I am Captain Xamos of the war vessel _Klessnex_! You are in Klaamox territory!" _ he hissed, his upper lip pulling back into a sneer, revealing sharp yellow teeth. "_Go back the way you came or we will destroy you!"_

"We are only on a survey mission--" Allucia was cut off as Xamos cut the transmission. A moment later the shuttle shook with phaser fire as an orange beam shot out of the _Klessnex._

Tom and Allucia stood up simultaneously, and they quickly switched seats. No words were passed as the lieutenant focused on evasive maneuvers and ensign on tactical. The first shot had somehow knocked out their shields.

"Return fire!" Tom called out as weapons fire shook the ship for a third time. "Aim for their weapons systems!"

"Targeted!" Allucia called.

"Fire!"

Allucia fired. "We barely made a dent in their shields!" she called a moment later; and then, a moment after that, the next shot that hit the _Sacajawea_ caused Allucia's console to short out and explode. She fell back into her chair, unconscious and bleeding from the temple. Tom cursed under his breath. Now not only were they defenseless; but lacking the critical extra pair of hands. He began pressing commands desperately into his own console. At the same time the lights went out above him as the shuttle went to auxiliary power. Then Tom heard the ominous whine of a transporter behind him. Tom swiveled in his chair only to be hit squarely in the chest by a phaser blast.

* * *

"Captain, we are receiving a message..." Harry said from Ops. "It's a Federation signature--Tom's code, but numerical only and he's not responding to hails."

Hearing the worry and urgency in Harry's voice, Kathryn was at his side and looking at his readings before he had finished saying "Tom."

"It's coordinates," Kathryn said. "And they were an hour away from the moon." She frowned. "Try hailing them again."

Harry did so. "No response." he replied.

"Ms. Wildman, set a course for those coordinates." Kathryn ordered. "They may be in trouble."

* * *

One moment Allucia had been targeting the phasers to shoot at Tom's next command, and the next she knew she was waking up with one hell of a headache on a cold hard floor. She groaned as she pushed herself to a sitting position, crying out as her right elbow caved beneath her. Then, in a flash, she remembered the rest of what had, and probably happened. "Tom?!" she managed to squeak out.

"Shhhh...calm down young one..." came a soothing, deep female voice. "You are just fine." the voice said, and arms helped the dazed teenager sit up and lean against a wall.

Allucia looked around, everything was blurry and dim. "Where's Tom--"

"The young man they brought in with you is only a few feet away, he is still unconscious."

The teenage looked up from where she had been cradling her throbbing skull in her hands; her vision was still a bit blurry. She looked towards where the voice was coming from and jumped, startled. The woman crouching in front of her bore such a close resemblance to her mother, she thought it was in fact her for a moment. The only difference was that this woman had long, elegantly pointed ears, elf like; curling slightly on the bottom and tops of the lobes, and a long slender nose. "Sorry," Allucia apologized, "but for a moment I thought you were someone else..." her voice trailed off as she choked back a sob. Then she looked around the room.

There were many other people around, of many different species, kept in a dimly lit holding cell of some sort. It was certainly too small for the amount of people it was holding. Everyone was murmuring quietly; there were children crying too, and Allucia could see Klaamox guards posted outside, heavily armed.

Allucia turned back to the woman in front of her. "Where's--" and in response the lady nodded towards where the pilot still lay unconscious, covered by a torn blanket that didn't do much to cover him.

"Tom!" Allucia cried, crawling the two feet to Tom, nearly collapsing again on the elbow she knew must have been dislocated again. Her first aid training from high school suddenly came back to her: Tom was breathing (though a bit raspy), had a pulse (a bit fast, Allucia thought), but he wasn't bleeding (externally at least). And she was very worried about the charred spot on his chest. Nonetheless Allucia sighed in relief as she leaned her good shoulder against the wall. She felt a light tap on the other shoulder. The teenager winced slightly and turned to the woman next to her, who was offering her a canteen of water. Allucia took it gratefully and thanked her.

"I'm Devra," the woman said, once Allucia had taken a good long sip.

"I'm Lusha, and this is Tom," she said, motioning to the prone lieutenant beside her.

"Is he your brother?" Devra asked.

Allucia smiled weakly. "You could say that."

Devra gazed intently at Allucia for a moment. "I don't think I've ever seen your kind in this area of space before."

Allucia snorted. "It's a long story." She went on to tell Devra about _Voyager's_ journey to the Alpha Quadrant, from what she had learned anyway. Devra patiently listened, captivated.

"It must be hard, being so far from home."

The teenager shrugged. "A little, but--" She turned to her right as Tom let out a pained moan. Allucia was at his side immediately. "Tom? Talk to me."

"Lush?" Tom groaned. "What happened?"

"Sit up and have some water first." Allucia said. She and Devra helped him to lean against the wall, and Allucia handed him the canteen.

Tom took a sip and looked around, wincing. "Please don't tell me we're on the Klaamox ship."

The ensign nodded solemnly. "We're on the Klaamox ship."

The elder pilot gave Allucia a dirty look, then shifted his position, wincing again. "I feel like I've been kicked in the chest by a horse."

"You were phasered." Allucia said. Tom nodded in remembrance. "Too bad you chest isn't as thick as your skull." She laughed nervously. "Oh yeah--Tom, this is Devra."

Tom waved weakly. "Hi. Sorry if I'm not good company right now."

"It's quite all right," Devra said, shaking her head. "You don't have to worry about that here."

"Just what kind of ship is this?" Tom asked.

The alien woman immediately stiffened. "Aside from being a warship...it's also a slaver ship."

Allucia paled while Tom muttered "Oh God."

Devra went on. "...and we're on our way to be sold." she said, in barely a whisper, shutting her eyes tightly. "I only hope that my planet's government will ransom for my people's release."

It finally occurred to Allucia to check about her combadge. Her hand automatically went to her chest, shakily. "Banks to _Voyager." _ she said, but there was no response. "It was worth a try." she said, shrugging painfully.

"You've been here for a couple of hours, and this ship has been traveling at high warp." Devra put in.

Tom reopened his eyes and looked around. There were no windows, but he had known that the ship was traveling at high warp as well. "Pilot, engineer, or captain?" he asked Devra.

Devra smiled knowingly, albeit sadly. "Captain. My ship was destroyed about two weeks ago, en route to my homeworld after a six-month survey mission, when we were attacked and overpowered. We--" she broke off as she looked upwards, although at nothing. Tom did the same.

"We've dropped out of warp." Tom said. Devra nodded her agreement.

Allucia immediately looked towards the cell entrance. The guards had deactivated the forcefield and were bringing in garments to wear, giving them out to the prisoners. Allucia and Devra helped Tom to stand up.

One burly guard walked up to Allucia, glaring at her. When a disturbance averted his eyes for a moment, she quickly tore off her combadge and fisted it. The teenager then returned the glare, her eyes an icy blue.

Surprised that such a child would be so pompous as to do this to him, he shoved the clothes at her, and in turn shoved her back into the wall. She gasped loudly as her elbow struck the wall. She slid along the wall to the floor, cradling her elbow. Tom sent the guard a glare as well as he helped her up, but didn't say anything.

"Change _ssslaves,"_ the guard snarled, articulating the latter word. Then he stalked off with the rest of the guards and they reactivated the forcefield.

For the next few minutes all was silent except for the rustling of clothing. The garments were toga-like, a loose fitting sleeveless shirt and shorts, and no footwear. There were twice as many guards outside now, just as heavily armed. After a few minutes, they filed in again. Tom and Allucia had tried to keep their standard issue boots, only to have them snatched away by a guard.

"Stay close to me," Tom murmured. Allucia nodded and clasped Tom's hand. He in turn gave it a squeeze, giving and receiving comfort at the same time.

* * *

"Approaching the coordinates, Captain," Tuvok called from Tactical.

Kathryn put down the report she was reading, and stood up, hands on hips. "On screen." she commanded. They were greeted with a seemingly empty starfield.

"Harry, scan for debris." Chakotay ordered.

"Scanning..." Harry said, his fingers flying over the panel in front of him with practiced ease; then his brow furrowed. "I'm reading debris from the _Sacajawea_..looks like it was blown apart by a disruptor--and the energy signature is Klaamox."

Kathryn's heart leapt up into her throat, then plunged back down into her stomach. "Organic remains?" she asked, her voice grim.

Harry turned his attention back to his console. "Negative, from the shuttlecraft only." Harry reported. She could hear the relief in his voice.

Kathryn sighed in relief herself. "How long ago did this happen?"

"Judging by the energy degradation, I'd say at least five hours."

"Any trace of warp signatures?" Chakotay asked.

"There are two," Tuvok reported, "both Klaamox, heading in opposite directions."

"Captain, there is a ship approaching." Harry called. "And it _is_ Klaamox."

"On screen," Kathryn ordered as she turned to face the front viewer, "and hail them. I want answers."

* * *

_**"No!"**_ Allucia shrieked. "You can't take me away from him! He's the only family I have left!" she howled, kicking and screaming in the hold of the frazzled security guard who was restraining her but looking like he would lose his grip any moment. She had managed to clasp her hands around Tom's, who was being hauled away by three guards since he had just been purchased. They'd just managed to interlink their handcuffs so it was nearly impossible to separate them. Her wrists were beginning to bleed, with the metal digging into them as guards on either side tried to separate the two.

"I won't let them--" He was cut off momentarily, "--separate us, Allucia!" Tom called.

They were on Klaamox III, the homeworld. They were in the main square in the capital city of a province. It must have been in the at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit; not including the humidity.

This scene went on a few minutes, Tom hurling epithets, and Allucia just plain hysterical, before more guards had to be called in before they were finally able to separate the two. When they did, Allucia had a fit, to say the least. Slaves, slavers, and buyers alike stared on at the spectacle, never having seen anything of the such before; especially coming from slaves.

She started kicking and screaming and moving so frantically it took four guards to restrain her, one for each limb. They couldn't shut her up though, she was screaming louder than an angry Klingon. Her energy even surprised Tom.

Tom himself was held by four guards also, he didn't have Allucia's energy, but that didn't mean he was fighting any less. In the back of his mind he was wondering why they hadn't been stunned or sedated yet. His best guess was that the "merchandise" was not to be harmed. But he wasn't giving up yet. He and Allucia may not have much chance of escaping, but they had to stay together. "You bastards!" he screamed hoarsely. "_How sadistic are you?!"__ No,_ he thought helplessly. _This can't happen...if we're separated...I'll never see her again. That girl has been through enough..._

They were just about to carry Allucia off, still kicking and screaming, when an well-dressed Klaamox walked up to one of her guards and told him something, gesturing to Tom. The guard nodded to his inferiors who in turn released Allucia. She went at warp speed to Tom, slamming into him with such force that he got the wind knocked out of his still-sore chest, with her sobbing. Tom put his arms around her, as his guards had released him also. The aide turned to Tom.

"I am Xelos," he said. "You are fortunate, Pale One. Zee lady of my house could not bear to ssseparate you two, seeing the pain it caused." Xelos sneered. "I think it foolish."

"Well I don't." Tom quipped.

Xelos scowled at Tom. "Follow me."

Tom looked down to see Allucia was unconscious. _Poor girl._ He also noticed her right elbow was swollen as big as a softball. He picked up the slight girl in his arms and began to follow Xelos.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

**"T**his is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship _Voyager." _Kathryn said. She knew that the Klaamox were _not _happy about them being in their territory, and she was trying diplomacy to ward off further conflict. She had a sinking feeling it wasn't going to work. "We are investigating the disappearance of two of our crew and one of our shuttles. Please _do not_ fire."

"They're responding Captain." Harry reported.

"On screen." The image of a Klaamox appeared on the screen. Kathryn opened her mouth to speak but was cut off.

_ "I am Captain Saxis of the _Uxlee_. Leave this area immediately!"_

Kathryn put her hands on her hips. "We pose no threat to you. Two of our crewmen have disappeared, and we are only trying to locate and rescue them." she explained gently.

_ "Unacceptable! You will leave our space now or bear the consequences!"_

Kathryn gave the reptile her patented death glare. "We will _not_ leave until we have finished our investigation." she said, nearly hissing, but venom still dripping from her every word. Saxis glared at her then ended the transmission, the screen changing back to the view of the _Uxlee._ The calm Kathryn returned, and she turned to Harry to ask about the transmission. But she instead got her answer from Tuvok.

"They are powering weapons, Captain." he stated calmly.

"Shields to full!" Chakotay ordered.

Everyone watched in horrid fascination as an odd looking green pulse was launched towards them. It hit the ship, cutting through the shields like a bat'leth through gagh. The bridge tilted forty-five degrees port, the inertial dampeners unable to keep up with the sudden hit. Everyone who wasn't holding on to something went flying. Kathryn was no exception, since she had been standing in the middle of the Bridge, hands on hips. The lights above went dark and the popping sounds of consoles shorting out could be heard. The emergency lights flickered on above, tinted with red as Chakotay called Red Alert.

The first officer looked at the viewscreen just in time to see the _Uxlee's _disrupter cannons fire, also going right through the shields. He tightened his grip on the rail where he was standing by Ops as the ship convulsed again.

"Tuvok, return fire!" Chakotay commanded, looking in the direction where Kathryn had flown, seeing her lying inert on the floor.

"Weapons not responding Commander," Tuvok called as _Voyager_ shook again. "Shields down to 36."

_ "Torres to Bridge!"_ B'Elanna's voice suddenly crackled over comm.

"Bridge here!" Chakotay called back. "B'Elanna, we're a bit busy up here!"

_ "Chakotay, you must get us out of here immediately! That first pulse is sending some type of neural blocker through the gelpacks! Get us to warp before we lose the engines!" _she yelled.

"Acknowledged! Chakotay out!" He swiftly moved to helm. Wildman was slumped over it, but not in the way. He quickly put in the coordinates from where they had come from, and the ship did a 180 degree turn, then jumped to warp six.

"Are they pursuing?" Chakotay called out.

"Negative," Harry responded, his speech slightly slurred as his lower lip was swollen and bleeding. "They are retreating into their own space."

Chakotay sighed, looking around at the messy Bridge. "Get repairs crews on the job as soon as they're able to." he said, then tapped his combadge. "Chakotay to Transporter Room Two. Beam the Captain and Ensign Wildman directly to Sickbay."

_ "Sorry sir,"_ came Ensign Gerron's voice. "_But transporters are off-line."_

The Commander tapped his combadge again. "Chakotay to Sickbay. Can you send some stretchers up here? We have casualties."

_ "Sorry Commander, but I have no free hands here while my field medic is gone; Seven and I have our hands quite full as it is."_ the Doc replied, then closed the channel.

Chakotay sighed audibly. "Guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," he said as he bent to pick Kathryn up and motioned to a slightly fazed ensign to tend to Samantha. "I'll be in Sickbay. Tuvok, you have the conn." he said as he entered the turbolift, idly hoping in the back of his mind that it wouldn't give out in transit.

* * *

Allucia was regaining consciousness again. She felt plain awful. She moaned and opened her eyes, seeing a blurry silhouette hovering over her. The person placed a cool cloth on her head. "Tom?" she rasped. Her throat felt dryer than Vulcan, her brain felt like it had turn to lead, and she generally felt like she had been hit head on by a runabout.

"I'm here, Lush. Don't sit up. You have a fever." Tom replied. She felt an arm slide under her upper back and help her to a semi-reclined position. "Thank God you're all right. I think your wrists got infected...those handcuffs did a number on them."

Looking up, she could see her crewmate looking at her, worriedly. Allucia winced at him; he was sunburned and had a bit of stubble. "How long was I out this time?"

"This is the fifth day."

"Fifth day?! Damn!" she squeaked.

"Shhhh...I'm not supposed to be in here. They have me working the fields. You're off until you regain consciousness, so if anyone besides me comes in here, pretend to still be out cold." he said. "Now sip this. _Slowly."_

Allucia attempted to lift her head but was too weak to do so. Tom lifted her head and gave her some water from a small cup. "Thanks," she rasped. "Where are we?" She turned her gaze to the rest of her surroundings. It was pretty dim; the only windows where high up and small, they did not let in much light. Other than the run-down looking shelves, filled with an assortment of tableware, the only other objects she could see in the room were tons of pillows that must have been nice once. They were ragged and threadbare but many still had stuffing. The floor the teenager lay on was nothing but bare earth and what looked like long grass or hay also lay scattered about.

Now that she had gotten something resembling her bearings, Allucia tried to sit up further, but her bad elbow wouldn't support her. She slipped out of Tom's grip slightly and banged her elbow on the ground before he could catch her and cursed loudly. She saw that it was bandaged, as her wrists were, and still swollen. She began to unwrap it.

"Lush--"

"Didn't the Doc teach you anything?" she asked. "My elbow is dislocated."

Tom looked at Allucia skeptically for a moment, then remembered what happened the first time it had occurred. "Fine. I had thought you had broken one of the radial bones" He helped her lay back down. "On five." Allucia nodded and closed her eyes tightly, bracing her upper arm against her side with her good arm. "One...two...five!" Tom counted, then yanked Allucia's arm. She didn't cry out, but the darkness quickly claimed her again.

Tom sighed deeply, as he readjusted Allucia's prone form into the recovery position as the EMH had taught him. For as much as he complained about his Sickbay double duties, he didn't hate them...he actually enjoyed them. And while he couldn't say he was enjoying himself now, he was still very satisfied he knew how to treat Allucia.

The battered wooden door of the hut suddenly flew inward. "You! What are you doing here?!" boomed a Klaamox voice.

Still with his back to the reptile, Tom's blue eyes turned gray and his gaze hard. "I was checking on my sister," Tom replied calmly. "She's still sick, in case you had forgotten," he said, replacing the damp cloth on Allucia's forehead. The guard didn't respond. Caressing the teenager's hair gently, he stood up and followed the guard out.

* * *

Allucia was awake by the Tom came back when work ended at sundown. She had managed to prop herself up against the wall. They certainly weren't alone now. For the dozen or so beings that were now in the dwelling, almost every one of them was a different species. "How are you feeling?" he asked as he handed her a cup of water and something that resembled bread.

"Better. Not as dizzy." she replied, taking a sip. "My elbow isn't as swollen either. Oh yeah...I wasn't able to show you before..." Allucia trailed off, reaching inside one of her wrist bandages, pulling out an object.

"Your combadge!"

Allucia nodded and took a small nibble of bread. "I took it off while we were still on the ship."

The pilot raised an eyebrow. "How did you manage to hide it? The only stuff they let us keep was..." Tom turned red. "Oh. _Ooooh_..."

"You pervert!" Allucia said, blushing as well. "It was in my underwear, not me! We should consider ourselves lucky that they have something against seeing people naked!" She sighed. "Anyway, I put it under my bandages after I woke up. Thought it'd be safer that way in case I passed out again."

Tom nodded his approval. "I don't suppose it's still working, is it?"

"Not at all anymore. We need to get some tools."

"I'll see what I can do." Tom looked at Allucia askance for a moment. "Are you sure you're up to what's ahead? Maybe you should pretend to pass out again...or you'll end up with a bad sunburn like me."

By this time the sun had completely set, and the hut didn't even have one lantern to light it with. Most of the occupants started to drift off to sleep. Having nothing else to do, Allucia's mind suddenly thought of what else people could do in the dark, and she was suddenly very grateful to have Tom there to protect her. "I can't just sit here and wait to be rescued." she replied, lowering her voice to a whisper.

"For all we know, we could be rescued tomorrow." Tom retorted, lowering his voice in kind.

"Or we might not! I'm not about to sit around to find out!"

Tom let out a long sigh. "Alright. But keep close to me, I don't want you out of my sight."

To his relief, Allucia nodded. "Don't worry, I won't argue with that!"

* * *

The day after the Klaamox attack on _Voyager,_ Kathryn stepped onto a bustling Bridge. "Senior staff meeting at 0900," she called, as she walked towards her Ready Room.

Once inside, she promptly plopped onto her couch. She put a hand to her temple. She had such a headache. And she'd left Sickbay without the Doctor's permission, of course.

After a moment of respite, Kathryn pulled herself off of the couch and over to the replicator, giving her usual order of coffee, except today laced with a bit of a painkiller to ease her throbbing skull. She returned to her desk and activated her console, taking a sip of her coffee.

While one part of her mind concentrated on the data and reports on the screen in front of her, another dwelt on the enigma of her two missing crewmembers.

The first aspect of their disappearance that disturbed Kathryn was the convenient appearance of the Klaamox vessel also immediately upon approaching Tom's coordinates, not to mention the response of weapons instead of words. That was what really annoyed Kathryn.

Then there was the fact that _Voyager_ had to retreat out of Klaamox space because of some weird energy pulse that, for all intents and purposes, paralyzed the ship. _Voyager_ was now in Grey Mode. B'Elanna said that the repairs would take a month at the very least.

So they were basically a floating duck in space, after the engines had given out when the neural blocker hit them. And there were no engines, weapons, or shields. On top of that Tom and Allucia were lost and probably captive somewhere in in Klaamox space and there was no way _Voyager_ could get them out with the state she was in; and when she was repaired, would they still be able to get in and out without what had happened the day before happening again?

Kathryn took another sip of her coffee as her door chime sounded. The chirp told her that the headache was worse. "Come," she called. Chakotay entered, carrying a padd. "Report?" Kathryn asked, arching an eyebrow.

Chakotay nodded, handing her the padd. She skimmed it over while he summarized it verbally. "Shields are up to 40, Environmental is stabilized, and replicators are still on-line. But I suppose you already know about the replicators."

"I'll drink to it," Kathryn said, raising her teacup and nodding. Then she closed her eyes, putting a hand to her head.

"What about you?" Chakotay asked. "How are you feeling?"

"To tell you the truth, I feel like my head is in a vise." Kathryn replied. "But other than that, I'm just peachy."

"Kathryn, you know you shouldn't have left Sickbay without clearance from the Doctor," Chakotay gently chided. "Even a Captain has her limits."

"I know but with the state this ship is in, I just can't afford to be in Sickbay."

"I'm hurt. You don't trust me." Chakotay pouted.

Kathryn chuckled. "Don't give me those puppy-dog eyes, Commander," she said, waggling a finger at him, "you know full well I trust you." Chakotay grinned. Kathryn rolled her eyes, and realized the throbbing in her head had subsided somewhat. Perhaps laughter was the best medicine. Then a forgotten thought crossed her mind and the throbbing returned. "What did the Doctor say about the gelpacks?"

"The green pulse that hit us did, in fact, have neural blockers in it. They went right through the hull and basically paralyzed the gelpack system, like a venom. If B'Elanna hadn't been able to reroute everything at the last minute like she did, we wouldn't have a ship right now."

"How do you think they knew about the gelpacks?" Kathryn asked. "From the shuttle's computer core?"

Chakotay shrugged. "Possibly, although they would need a good hacker to get through decrypting it, translating it, and developing the technology. But I think they have the technology themselves, as they steal it. The Federation can't be the only ones to have developed bio-neural circuitry."

Kathryn nodded. "When we go back into Klaamox space--and we _will_ go--how will we can defend ourselves?"

"B'Elanna, Harry and Seven are already on it."

"Good. Keep me informed." Kathryn leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes. Chakotay cast a thoughtful gaze at her for a moment before exiting.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

**A** week later, and Allucia and Tom were still waiting to be rescued. Most of their time revolved around harvesting rutgai. It was similar to bamboo, but thicker, shorter, and much bluer, and used for practically everything on the planet from textiles to fuel.

Allucia was so badly sunburned that she could pass for a Thallonian, and was cursing herself every day that she didn't stay in bed longer like Tom wanted her to.

As for the elder pilot, he was still working on a way to get tools to fix her combadge with. Her wrists will still healing, so it was no problem to keep using that as the hiding place for it. Though, if it absolutely came to it, she still had other places she could hide the small badge.

Tying her bundle of rutgai together, Allucia hefted it onto her peeling shoulders with a grunt. It was heavier than she should have been carrying, but she could really care less. The pain gave her something to focus her attention on. She grabbed the smaller bundle with her other hand and began to leave the field with the other slaves. It was dusk, when all work thankfully ended until dawn. All Allucia wanted to do was to go to bed, and sleep for a long, long time. The fatigue and sunburn and hunger together made her shake.

She really hoped Tom had some tools today, she and him both hated biding their time on this hellhole of a planet and couldn't stand not being able to do anything about it. Not being able to contact _Voyager_ was nearly unbearable, and Tom didn't even know if his last-ditch attempt to send _Voyager_ their last coordinates had succeeded either.

_ Who woulda thought...a chick like me...sucked outta New York and zapped into the future. And now I'm a slave somewhere in the galaxy. _She shook her head. _It's so...so...like I'm in a scifi novel...or I'm dreaming. _The girl grunted as the contents of the bundle on her shoulder shifted, causing some discomfort to her fried skin. _Of course...if I was dreaming, I wouldn't be in so much pain..._

"I suppose it could be worse," she muttered. "I coulda ended up as a Barbarella." She thought for a moment, and tried to decide if that would actually be worse...

Allucia exited the field and dumped her loads of rutgai on the waiting antigrav truck, then turned and headed directly for the dried mud huts the slaves slept inn. Upon reaching the bunk, she rinsed the grime and sweat off her face the best she could in the rain basin outside and went inside, quickly falling asleep on the pile of discarded pillows that had been acting as her and Tom's makeshift bed for the past few weeks.

It never ceased to amaze her, how a civilization with warp capabilities and advanced technology would use such a primitive and inhumane means for a labor force.

* * *

"Yoo-hoo, Lush, wake up." Someone-who-was-going-to-be-sorry was shaking her shoulder. The hand that belonged to the arm on that shoulder connected with the disturber's face just as Allucia realized who it was.

"Omigosh! I'm sorry Tom!" Allucia exclaimed, sitting up.

Tom chuckled. "That's a helluva backhand you got there," he said, exercising his jaw. "Ever consider taking up hoverball?"

"Damn it, I'm a softball player, not a tennis player!" Allucia said, giggling for the first time in a long while.

Tom shook his head, smiling, then held up a bowl. "You missed dinner again."

"What a pity," Allucia said, leaning over to peer into the bowl and making a face. "Tom, what the _hell_ is that?"

"Believe me, it's probably better if you don't know."

"I think I'll pass."

"Allucia, you _have_ to eat something." Tom scolded.

"I ate this morning."

"What?"

"A couple of yemack berries and what passes for bread around here."

"That's all?"

"Yup."

Tom shook his head then shoved the bowl at Allucia. "Eat."

"But--" she protested. Tom glared at Allucia, who sighed exasperatedly. "Fine." She took the bowl and sniffed it. Finding it acceptable, she took an experimental bite of the stuff inside that resembled a cross between hay and scrambled eggs, chewing it with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Do you know how you look, chewing like that?" Tom said, snickering.

"Not as bad as you're gonna look when it's on your face after I spit it," Allucia responded, sticking her tongue out with the food on it at Tom.

"Now _that_ looks bad!"

Allucia quickly finished off the bowl. "Now are you going to tell me what this is?"

"Nope." Tom smirked.

The teenager rolled her eyes. "But I could be allergic to it!"

"With the way _you_ eat, I highly doubt you're allergic to _anything_." Tom leaned closer and started whispering. "I'm fairly sure I can get some tools, but what I have in mind involves you doing the work."

Allucia lifted an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"You would have to get into the main house. I can't get in 'cause I'm male; they only let females in, so you might be able to get in, asking for house duty or something."

The ensign nodded thoughtfully. "I'll do it."

"There's just one problem."

"How did I know there would be?"

"They keep the girls who work in the house under heavier security, in another dorm inside the house, and only let the most trusted ones out to go to town." Tom explained. Allucia immediately paled at the prospect of being separated from Tom. But if they were going to get off this planet, they had to work together. Tom went on. "They tag you, how I don't know, so they can keep tabs on you."

Allucia sighed deeply, and didn't say anything for a moment. "Let me sleep on it."

Tom nodded. "Okay. Let me know."

"But what if I don't?"

Tom's face fell. "I honestly don't know."

Allucia sighed and turned on her side to face the wall. "'Night Tom."

* * *

A few days after Tom proposed it, Allucia was working in the main house. She called it a prison. They vehemently accepted her when she requested to work there.

Allucia had approached one of the field guards and asked what to do, and he basically dragged her up to the house, where they stripped off the togas and shoved her in something like a sonic shower, dragged her out, clapped something on her ankle, then locked her in the dorm with clothes to change into.

Her ears were still ringing from the sonic shower, and her shoulders felt as though they had no skin left on them. She gently pulled on the clothes she had been given. A white sleeveless shirt with an Oriental-type collar and...well that was it. It was a shapeless cotton shift that ended five inches before her knees, and no shoes. Not to mention she felt like a candy cane with her sunburn.

She opened her clenched palm and her combadge clattered to the floor. She'd hidden it as she was dragged to the house, afraid that those there wouldn't be lenient. She looked at the delta imprinted in her palm for a moment before kneeling to pick it up and tucking inside the waistband of her underwear. She turned around as the door opened.

* * *

Tom watched as Allucia walked up to the guard on duty. She'd only gotten a few words out of her mouth when he'd grabbed her by (thankfully) her left arm and up to the house. He breathed a sigh of relief as she managed to hide her combadge before they got there. Tom and Allucia were very cautious with the combadge; it was their only way to get off this God-awful planet.

Allucia looked back to Tom just before being dragged inside the gate. Her face said it all: she was petrified. And he couldn't do a thing about it. _If they hurt her,_ he thought, _I won't be responsible for what happens to them._

* * *

"Follow me." The person who opened the door was Xelos, the aide who had brought her and Tom here.

Allucia followed him, standing straight up, hands at her sides and her head held high. She wasn't going to belittle herself. She followed Xelos onto a large patio overlooking the fields. Sarix, as Allucia had learned her name was, the "master's" (Allucia thought with a sneer) wife, sat sunning herself. Being a cold-blooded (and cold-hearted) reptile, this somehow made sense to Allucia.

"My aide tellsss me you wished to work in zee house instead of the fieldsss. I have granted your request, but I would like to know your reasonsss." Sarix said, bored and indifferent in tone.

"Because I choose to." Allucia stated firmly.

"Really." Sarix said, opening her eyes. "And what of being ssseparated from your brother? The bond between you was zee only reason I purchased you." She sneered. "You should thank me, really. You're ssso ssscrawny, otherwise no one else would have bought you, except perhaps to work in a brothel."

Allucia's temper flared. But she kept control of herself. "Very well." she said. "I'll tell you why I'm here. My brother was concerned for me, I did not take well to the arduous work of the fields."

"You are very well ssspoken, for a ssslave."

"I was not always a 'slave,'" Allucia said the last word with obvious distaste. "Contrary to what you may think, we had lives and families before being 'purchased.'"

Sarix's eyes flashed with anger. "Put her to work!" she hissed.

Xelos grabbed Allucia by her bad arm. Ignoring the pain, she defiantly ripped it out of his grasp, glaring at him.


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

"Captain, we have weapons back on-line." Harry reported from Ops.

"Affirmative," Tuvok confirmed. "Phaser banks are at eighty-five percent. Engineering reports torpedo launchers will be back on-line within the hour."

"Good," Kathryn said. She tapped her combadge. "Janeway to Seven."

_ "Seven here."_

"How are those modifications coming along?"

_ "The modifications will be complete within five hours." _Seven replied tersely. She was in Deflector Control.

"Good. Keep me posted. Janeway out." Kathryn tapped her combadge to close the channel, then tapped it again to open another one. "Janeway to Torres."

_ "Torres here."_

"B'Elanna, how are the engines?"

_ "Sorry Captain, at least another week on them, they were the hardest hit."_

"No problem, B'Elanna, just keep at it and keep up the rest of the good work you've done with the rest of the ship," Kathryn said, a smile creeping into her voice. But it never reached her mouth. A gut feeling had her very worried about Tom and Allucia. And her instinct was rarely wrong, and God, she hoped it was wrong. After nearly a month, they were barely halfway through their repairs. Life support, shields, and weapons had the highest priority. Now they just had to get everything else working.

"Chakotay, do we have helm back yet?" Kathryn called to the man laying under the helm console.

"You will by the end of my shift." he replied. Then, so no one else could hear him (except maybe Tuvok), "Whenever that is." Out of the first officer's view, the Vulcan raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Kathryn nodded and plopped into her chair. God, she was tired. Not to mention a bit frazzled. She swore if she had anymore surprises she was going to scream loud enough to rip a hole in the space-time continuum.

* * *

The slap seemed to reverberate through the quiet house, a scaly hand striking bare mammalian skin. It was fairly cool, being nighttime. Allucia glared at Sarix, a four-fingered hand print glowing red on her cheek. Her eyes were such an icy blue, the room felt even cooler. Sarix could feel her body temperature dropp considerably, despite the heat lamps in the room.

"How _dare _you!" Sarix shrieked. "How dare you sneak into my private quarters! What did you steal? Tell me this instant!"

"I didn't steal anything!" Allucia shouted back. She received a slap on the other cheek. Allucia knew who did it, it was one of the other girls who worked the house. Why she decided to take the blame, she didn't know. But she did know that she was going to pay dearly.

"Satax!" Sarix shrilled. Another one of her aides was immediately by her side. "Punish her," she said, attempting to sound indifferent as she walked off. "I don't care how." she said, waving her hand as she did so.

Allucia turned her glare on Satax, a lock of hair hanging in her face. Her hair, which since coming to _Voyager_ had grown to a few inches past her shoulders, was currently was in something resembling a braid though most of the hair had been pulled out of the hair tie by Sarix's abuse. The teenager was hunched over a bit; and her hands were clenched at her sides, but she refused to submit. But at the same time, she also couldn't help but notice the similarity of Satax's name to Satan.

Satax sneered. He was going to enjoy this.

* * *

A few hours later, in the early morning, Allucia was returned to the dormitory bruised, battered, bloody, and barely conscious. Her white shift was splattered with blood. Satax dumped her on the cold marble floor and left, locking the door behind him.

Every girl immediately sat up in their bunks and began whispering loudly. None of them had gone to sleep; they'd stayed awake to see if Allucia would come back alive. No one that they could remember had. They weren't sure if she still was. She lay unmoving and face down on the floor.

One of the girls, Lukita, warily made her way to Allucia, nearly on tip-toe. She looked human except for a third eye situated on her forehead and light violet skin. She stopped two steps away as the young girl suddenly moved and groaned.

All of the girls watched in gaping surprise as the tiniest of them hefted herself off of the floor and over to the wash area. She spend nearly an hour gingerly washing her wounds. When she turned around, her roommates were still watching her.

Allucia looked horrible. Her left eye was swollen shut, a black eye. Her right arm hung limply at her side, her elbow no doubt dislocated again. She had several cuts and gashes and whip marks on her back, and welts around her neck. Her hair was matted, and there was no sign of the braid that had previously been there. "Well," she rasped. "I suppose you all want to know what happened." No one said anything, nonetheless Allucia knew they were dying to know. So she told them. "No, I wasn't raped. Yes, I was beaten nearly senseless. End of story." She turned to Morina, the girl who had been in Sarix's room. "I hope you're happy." Allucia said, so coldly that Morina shivered right down to the tip of her tail. She was felinoid.

"But—but why?" she stammered.

"Because no matter how I feel about someone or them about me, I cannot stand to see anyone get hurt." Allucia limped to her bunk and was somehow able to get up to the top one, the third one up.

"There must be something I can do to repay you."

Allucia peeked over the side of her bed, a thoughtful expression on her face. "There is. But how do I know I can trust you?"

"Because if you are going to ask what I think you will, you have no other choice."

The human shrugged painfully. "You're right. So what am I going to ask?"

Morina stared around the room. The other girls got the hint and retreated back to their bunks. "You want to get in touch with your brother."

Allucia smiled inwardly. Still, they thought she and Tom were brother and sister. Aside from being the only humans on the entire planet, it did make sense, both of them being blue-eyed and fair skinned, despite the stark difference in hair color. "True. But that's not all. Come up here and we'll talk."

Morina nimbly climbed up and sat cross-legged on the end. "So what else is it you want?"

"My ship may be en route to rescue us. I have a beacon, so to speak, but it is not functional. I need tools to fix it. Tools that would be used to repair microprocessors. I then have to get the beacon and tools out to my brother... I don't think I'll be allowed out for a long time, after tonight's incident." Allucia's voice held a foreboding tone.

The cat girl purred, thinking. "I do genuinely want to help you. Getting out to your brother is no problem. I am a bit... friendly with one of the guards. The tools will be a bit more difficult to obtain, but I will be able to do it."

"Can you do this tomorrow?" Allucia asked urgently. She was finding it more difficult to speak with every word; her tongue felt like it had swollen to fill her entire mouth.

"Yes."

"Can I ask you one more favor?"

"Anything."

* * *

_ Voyager_ shot through Klaamox space at high warp. Kathryn was very edgy, she felt more then ready to crawl out of her skin. Apparently her mood was rubbing off on her first officer, for he was shifting uncomfortably in his seat as well. It was their second day in Klaamox space. Kathryn hadn't slept for three.

Impatient, she tapped her combadge. "Janeway to Seven. Those modifications are on-line, correct?"

_"Seven here. Aye Captain. Deflector dish and modifications on-line."_

"Acknowledged. Janeway out." Kathryn tapped her combadge again to close the channel. Then she set to tapping her fingers on the armrest.

"Kathryn." someone with a deep voice chided gently.

She'd been drumming her fingers for two minutes straight. She froze her hand, getting ready to tap again. Then she flattened her hand against the armrest, making a slight smack. "Forgive me Chakotay. I'm jumpier than three Ferengi at an estate auction."

Chakotay chuckled. "Care to talk?"

Kathryn shook her head in confusion. "I feel as if... as if we need to find them soon, like we don't have much time. I wish we had some sign of them. Anything would be better than nothing at all."

* * *

Tom kicked at the base of the rutgai with his bare foot and the plant splintered. It had been nearly a month since Allucia had been dragged inside the gate. And he hadn't heard a thing from or of her.

However, the disturbing scuttlebutt he'd heard this morning was about one of the girls in there who was beaten last night for allegedly stealing, and nothing else. Tom prayed it wasn't Allucia. He kicked at the next root in growing ire and worry. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. He whirled around. Standing before him was a felinoid female, dressed in the white smock of the house.

"You are Tom?" she asked, her eyes darting about nervously.

Tom straightened up and folded his arms over his chest. "Who wants to know?" he asked, skeptically.

Her eyes narrowed, but she understood his suspicion. "I am Morina. Alloo-sha asked me to come." Morina lifted her tail, on the end of which was tied a small bundle which had been hidden under her shift. "This is for you. She said you would know what to do." Untying it from her tail, she handed him the bundle and he opened it. Inside was Allucia's combadge and some tools.

Tom looked up at Morina in thoughtful understanding, yet there was some confusion in his eyes. "But why—"

"I owe deeply. She took punishment for me."

Tom's eyes went wide. "Y-y-you mean—" he stammered.

Morina nodded solemnly, then her ears perked up. She heard something Tom could not, and her ears flattened against her head in fear. "I must go!" And then she was gone, leaving Tom to wonder what condition Allucia was in. She was capable of repairing the combadge herself, but if she was unable to or in no condition... Tom didn't want to think about it. It wouldn't help him or Allucia. He quickly retied the bundle he had been staring at and tucked it inside his toga.

As soon as he got back to the bunk for the night, he began work on repairing the combadge, which wasn't easy given the lack of light. He had to stand by one of the windows and do it by moonlight. After nearly two hours, he snapped the on the cover of the combadge with mixed satisfaction. He only hoped now that _Voyager_ would pick up the signal and the technology in their surrounding area wouldn't...

* * *

_ The next day on_ Voyager...

"Captain, a Klaamox ship is approaching." Tuvok reported.

"They're hailing us," Harry put in.

Kathryn stood up. "On screen."

_ "I am Captain Xarf of the _Ilix. _You are to leave our space immediately or face the consequences; which will subsequently be your destruction." _ There was a middle-aged and bored-looking Klaamox on the screen.

Kathryn stated but one word, forcefully. "No."

_ "Very well." _Xarf turned to someone off-screen. _"__Fire neutralizer at will."_

Kathryn immediately turned to Tuvok. "Fire." There would be no discussion or diplomacy this time. It was obviously something the Klaamox didn't believe in.

A green beam shot out of _Voyager's_ deflector dish, going right through the _Ilix's_ shields and through the hull. The ship appeared to power down and float aimlessly.

Kathryn was not a cruel woman, but she had to do what she had to do. "Resume course, Ensign Wildman," she said grimly, turned around and returned to her chair.

* * *

"Captain!" Harry called excitedly from Ops an hour into Alpha Shift the next day. "I'm picking up an automated distress signal—" Kathryn was up and at Harry's station faster than transwarp. "—from Ensign Banks' combadge. It's weak, but it's there."

Chakotay stood up. "Location?"

"In a system 47 light-years from here. Four days at maximum warp."

Kathryn walked back down to the middle of the Bridge and stood in front of her chair. "Ensign Wildman, set a course."

"Course set Captain," Samantha replied.

Kathryn sat down. "Engage."

* * *

Tom was working in the fields the next day when it happened. The combadge chirped.

It sounded like the singing of an angel.

He struggled to keep his voice calm as he reached inside his toga and tapped it. "Paris here," he whispered loudly, his voice shaking.

_ "Tom... found... be there... days..."_ Kathryn's voice could barely be heard through the static. Then he cursed as the combadge shorted out, sending up a tiny string of smoke. It had served its purpose. _Now it's only a matter of days... hopefully..._

* * *

_ A few days later..._

"Captain, entering orbit around the third planet," Tuvok reported.

"Harry, scan for human life signs in the vicinity where we picked up the combadge." Chakotay commanded.

"Scanning... got them... both under dampening fields... but one of them is under the equivalent of a Force Two forcefield... I'll need a few minutes to lock onto their signals... The fields are quite primitive actually, shouldn't take me too long..."

"Keep me posted. I'll be in Transporter Room One. Chakotay you're with me, Tuvok, you have the Bridge." Kathryn tapped her combadge as she entered the turbolift and the doors closed. "Janeway to Torres. Meet me in Transporter Room One." Kathryn had more than a hunch that B'Elanna would want to be there.

Kathryn and Chakotay entered the transporter room just as the transporter was activated, and a figure materialized. B'Elanna chose the moment that the figure became solid to enter the room.

"Tom?" she cried. She bolted forward. Tom did the same, the two lovers falling into a tight embrace.

The chief pilot looked almost like a different man. A light beard had grown in, with him having nothing to shave with, and his sunburn had turned to copper. He kissed B'Elanna, holding her for a moment. He was uttering comforts in her ear, cupping her face, and she was nodding.

Then Tom looked to Kathryn. "What about Allucia?" he said. "I don't think she's in very good shape, the last I heard..."

Kathryn started to nod, slowing down in mid-nod by the news about Allucia. She tapped her combadge. "Janeway to the Bridge. We have Tom, where's Lusha?"

_"Her lifesigns are erratic; when I get a lock on her I'm beaming her directly to Sickbay."_ came Harry's voice.

"Acknowledged. Tuvok, as soon as she's aboard, plot a course out of Klaamox territory, best possible speed."


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

A small, crumpled figure was coalescing onto the floor of Sickbay as Kathryn, Chakotay, Tom, and B'Elanna walked in. Kathryn gasped. The girl had such a skeletal appearance that Kathryn in fact thought for one terrified nanosecond that was what had been beamed aboard. She stood there, rooted to the floor in shock.

"My God..." Tom trailed off. He instantly moved to help the Doctor lift her onto the diagnostic bed, despite the Doctor's complaints.

Allucia was unconscious, and it was plain to see why. Her back was covered with gashes from being whipped, healing badly. Both eyes were swollen shut, both having evidence of formerly being black eyes. Her hair had been hacked short, and she had welts and bruising around her neck, and many other bruises and abrasions on the rest of her body. To top it off, she was wearing a short, filthy, blood-splattered shift.

"She is alive, but barely." the Doctor reported, scanning her over with a tricorder. Her small body was so wracked with injuries he couldn't list them all. "She has sustained numerous injuries, both external and internal." The Doc shut his tricorder and proceeded to give Tom orders on what to do.

After stabilizing her, Tom and the Doctor worked on Allucia for nearly five hours. They had cleaned and healed her wounds, but she was still unconscious, and the Doc said it would be better for her to wake up on her own. The elder pilot refused to leave Sickbay until Allucia woke up, even with B'Elanna's pleading. He did however, at the Doc's insistence, get cleaned up, dressing in some civvies.

Kathryn was angry beyond words. Although she had been through a similar experience with the Cardassians, it certainly wasn't as severe as what Allucia had suffered. From what Tom had told her, they would not be here now if it wasn't for Allucia. What had happened to her because of her actions was unbearable to think about.

* * *

Kathryn walked into Sickbay after hours. She was having a hard time sleeping. Tom had fallen asleep in an uncomfortable looking chair. B'Elanna was on his lap, her arms encircling his neck. The Doc was off, the lights in Sickbay dimmed.

The captain walked over to the biobed where Allucia remained unconscious. She was barely recognizable with her skeletal body and shorn hair. Kathryn's heart broke for her. Allucia was barely an adult, and had gone through so much in such a short time. The older woman felt responsible for her, and wished she hadn't sent her out into the unknown. But that was part of Starfleet. Kathryn sighed deeply, and brushed a tuft of hair behind Allucia's ear before leaving the medical bay with a heavy heart.

* * *

It was later that afternoon that Allucia regained consciousness. She opened her eyes wide and tried to look around, but a major cramp in her neck prevented her from doing so. She tried to speak, but it came out as a pitiful squeak. Tom was instantly at her side, running her over with a tricorder, then closed it when he was satisfied. "Thank God you're all right," he said.

Allucia's throat was so dry she couldn't reply, so she painfully mouthed the word "water." Tom nodded and left her view. She was happy to recognize the ceiling of Sickbay. It gave her confirmation that she was safe. She tried to sit up again, but immediately laid back down as the room was spinning at warp speed and had the stars to go with it. Determined, she sat up more slowly a moment later, and slowed the spinning to impulse. Tom returned with the water.

She downed half the glass, sputtering a bit. "You know, if you spend any more time with me, B'Elanna might start getting jealous." she chastised.

"Yeah, but I'm off-duty for the next week anyway." _If she still has a sense of humor, I think she's going to be fine..._

Allucia smirked. "Bet Doc is happy about that." She took another sip of water.

"So happy in fact, he deactivated himself in delirium." Then Tom snapped his fingers in remembrance, then tapped his combadge. "Paris to Janeway."

_ "Janeway here."_

"She's awake Captain."

_ "I'm on my way. Janeway out." _Kathryn closed the connection, and walked in about a minute later. "Thank God you're all right," she said. Allucia made a face. She had a feeling she was going to hear that a lot today, and she didn't like getting fussed over.

Apparently a subroutine in the HoloDoc's matrix decided there were too many people present and he activated himself. "There are too many people in here for my patient," he said, coming up behind Kathryn and startling her. "I must ask some of you to leave. It's bad enough I am permitting Mister Paris to remain here."

"Belay that. Doctor, leave us for a few minutes. I need to talk to Allucia and Tom." Kathryn said quietly. The Doctor nodded in silent acknowledgment and deactivated himself.

Allucia grew sullen, she knew what was coming, and was not looking forward to it. Kathryn noticed. "Are you up to this? Or do you want to wait?"

"I just want to get it over with." Kathryn nodded, and Allucia went on, taking a deep breath. "I regained consciousness on a Klaamox ship, Tom a few minutes later. From then on we posed as brother and sister, since that's what everyone thought we were. We found out we were going to be sold as slaves upon reaching our destination. Then when they tried to separate us, when Tom was 'purchased,' well, I got overly hysterical in the hopes that we would get purchased together... 'sides... it wasn't that hard to do..." Allucia laughed nervously at the memory. "But it worked a little too well. I hyperventilated and lost consciousness."

Tom spoke up. "I did the same. They had nearly a dozen guards between the two of us, most of them restraining Lush. We did end up together." Tom lifted himself onto the biobed next to Allucia, wrapping a fraternal arm around her, who had moved her feet to make room for him.

The story went on, with Tom and Allucia alternating until the point in time when Allucia had moved to the plantation house. There Allucia stopped cold.

"What happened after that?" Kathryn asked. The fact that her two crewmembers grew closer to each other during the ordeal was not lost on Kathryn.

Whatever color had been left in Allucia's face immediately left it. "I–I... I don't think I can talk about that now, Captain."

Tom and Kathryn could clearly see the pain in Allucia's words, and her eyes, the latter of which was always expressive, as they had learned, and how it seemed to have etched years into her face. She looked as though she had to grow up too soon. Seeing this pain, they immediately assumed the worst. But they couldn't force her to talk about it now.

"That's perfectly fine," Kathryn said. "Whenever you're ready." Allucia nodded.

Tom went into his experiences, but didn't say anything about his hearing what had happened to Allucia, but did say she had made it possible to contact _Voyager_. When Tom had finished speaking, he and Kathryn found that Allucia had fallen asleep. They set her right and left Sickbay. They walked to the first bend of the corridor in silence before Kathryn spoke and Tom knew exactly what she was going to say, and braced himself for it. He knew he wasn't going to get out of it, not with Kathryn Janeway.

"What aren't you telling me, Tom? Something horrible happened to Allucia down there, and I have a feeling you know what it is."

Tom gave a long-drawn out sigh. "Truth is, Captain, I'm not quite sure myself. I only have an idea." he said, staring at the floor, a blank expression on his face, then took a deep breath. "After Lush moved to the main house, we lost all contact with each other. Around the same she smuggled out her combadge, I heard that one of the girls was beaten for allegedly stealing something. Come to find out it was Lush, she had taken punishment for the girl who was the actual thief. This was about two weeks ago. But this same girl had smuggled out the badge and the tools, being indebted to Allucia." Tom ran his hands down his face. There was more to it than that... he had helped the Doctor heal her injuries. But captain or not, Allucia needed to be afforded some privacy, especially given the nature of some of her injuries.

The woman stopped in her tracks. "My God... but what happened afterwards? The state she was in when she was beamed up..." Kathryn said in that quiet raspy tone of hers. She put a hand to her mouth, then raised both fists in frustration. Realizing where they were, she shakily lowered them. "Incidents like these are when I wish we had a trained counselor on board. But Chakotay is still adept, I'll ask him to talk to her."

Tom leaned against the corridor wall, still staring at the floor. "What if she refuses to talk? She's as stubborn as B'Elanna."

Kathryn had no answer.


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Allucia was released to her quarters later the next day. She knew it was a matter of time before Chakotay showed up to talk. In fact, she figured he'd show up right after his duty shift ended.

And show up he did. Exactly five minutes after Beta Shift ended, Allucia's door chirped. He wasn't anything, if not punctual. "Come in, Commander," she tiredly called. She was lying on the couch staring into space, with an afghan thrown over her legs.

"How did you know it was me?" Chakotay asked cordially, coming in.

"I knew you were going to come."

"So you know why I'm here."

"Yes."

"So do you want to talk?"

"Not particularly."

Chakotay knew this would happen, so he decided to start off simple. "What happened to your hair?" he asked, sitting down at the far end of her couch.

Allucia's face twisted into a grotesque, pained mask for a moment, then slipped into a Vulcan one. "Ain't it obvious? I'z hacked it off." she snapped.

Chakotay frowned. "Why?" The commander immediately noticed that her Brooklyn accent had suddenly returned, but he knew it was her defense mechanism.

"It was buggin' me."

The first officer sighed. "Allucia."

"Whaaaa?" she whined. "This is a waste of time. Let me deal with me myself."

"I don't think so." Chakotay looked at Allucia as well as her words. On the outside she may be harsh and bitter, but inside hid a frightened little girl.

They went on for three hours like that, the perfect stalemate. Chakotay, the eternally patient one; Allucia the Klingon-stubborn one.

Then, nearing the end of the first half of the third hour, without warning, Allucia burst out crying. She brought her knees to her chest in an attempt to stifle the sobs, but it was to no avail.

After a moment, Chakotay arose from his seat and knelt next to the couch and put a hand on her convulsing shoulder. She surprised him by crumpling onto him. He put his arms around her, enveloping her in a hug, rocking her gently until she fell asleep and the sobs subsided.

* * *

Chakotay walked into Sandrine's that night with a heavy heart. He was meeting Kathryn for dinner (that made his heart beat a little faster, though), but had a feeling he wasn't going to enjoy himself as much as he usually would.

He sat in an empty booth and reflected on his time with Allucia. The poor child was obviously traumatized by what happened to her. He was also unsure as to why she was so closemouthed about it. And it seemed she was still homesick too; having no family. She clung to Tom whenever possible; from what he was saying, apparently they had grown closer and regarded each other as brother and sister. It made sense, they were both loners in their own regards. But they had made progress in their first session. Chakotay was thinking how to proceed when a voice interrupted.

"Chakotay... hellooo..." Kathryn was waving her hand in front of Chakotay's face.

"Huh?" Chakotay said, snapping out of his thoughtful repartee. "Oh, sorry. I was reflecting on my time with Allucia."

"How did it go?" Kathryn inquired. The first officer let out a long drawn out sigh. Kathryn arched her eyebrows as she rested her elbows on the table and rested her face in her hands. "That bad?"

"No, just frustrating." he said. He wasn't going to say anything else; counselor-patient privacy. Kathryn nodded; she knew this. Then the commander did one of his mood switches, remembering the object of his affections was sitting in front of him. "Now, shall we order dinner?" Chakotay said with a smile and a wink.

"But of course," Kathryn said, smiling back. "You know, with all these dinners we have together, neither of us are going to have any rations left."

"Well, if you didn't spend all your rations on coffee, you would have more left." Chakotay said. "Maybe you should try Neelix's coffee substitute. It's pretty potent stuff."

"Don't tell me you drink that stuff." Kathryn said incredulously.

"How do you think I make it bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to the Bridge every morning?"

Kathryn frowned thoughtfully. "Hmmmmm. I see." She laughed, leaning back into the leather padding of the booth. "I think I'll pass," she said, as Sandrine walked up to take their orders.

Chakotay smiled, hearing Kathryn's laugh. He just wished he could tell her how he felt about her; but he knew she wasn't ready. If ever.

* * *

Allucia snuck out of her quarters and headed for the Holodeck. It was very late, or extremely early, depending on the point of view; no one saw the decimated girl walking the corridors. Once in front of Holodeck Two, she loaded her new holoprogram and entered.

Her pajamas were suddenly covered with the gear of a hockey player and the slippers to ice skates as she glided onto the ice of an indoor rink. "Computer, add team Annihilators," Allucia commanded.

"Not so fast, Miss Banks." came an all-too-familiar sardonic voice from behind her.

The teenager twirled around on her skates, ignoring the fantastic pain in her hip. "Whaddaya _mean_, not so fast?" she snapped.

"I mean you are just recovering from several injuries, many severe. You may hurt yourself further. Additionally, I programmed the computer inform me if you activated any holoprograms without the safeties on." the HoloDoc said.

"Think I care?" she replied, skating backwards a bit.

"You should," the Doc said, taking a step and slipping on the ice a little. "You could injure yourself even more severely."

Allucia started slowly skating in circles around the Doctor. "And what if I said I wanted to get hurt?" She didn't give him a chance to answer. "Computer, deactivate EMH and send him back to Sickbay."

"Now just a damn―" he said, cut off as he shimmered out of sight. Allucia called for the arch and began to hack into the system and made it so the hologram couldn't come back to bug her. At least for a few minutes.

Then the ensign looked around and changed her mind about the program, deciding to switch to another one she'd been working on. She activated the program.

This time it was a roller rink. Her hockey gear changed back to her pajamas and her ice skates to roller skates. She began to skate, pumping her legs as hard as she possibly could in her condition, ignoring the pain it was causing.

"Computer, end program."

Allucia went to twirl around but stumbled, with the holo-skates disappearing under her feet. Indignant, she stood up. "You! How did―"

Chakotay leaned against the open door frame, crossing his arms. "You're lucky I got here first. Tuvok won't catch on for another few minutes."

The teenager let out an exasperated cross between a sigh and a growl. "Why can't you just leave me _alone?"_ she yelled, throwing her arms up in the air.

Chakotay stood up straight and walked a few steps closer, the holodeck door vrooming closed behind him. "Because you need help, and you know it. You just won't admit it."

"Yeah, well, you don't know _**shit**__!"_ she said shrilly, making a dismissive gesture. Then she bolted out of the holodeck, slipping through the doors when they had opened a foot. Chakotay shook his head in frustration as he left to follow her.

He followed her down the hall to the turbolift, and caught up with Allucia just as the turbolift doors were closing. Chakotay neatly slid in, the doors closing behind him, even though they wouldn't have closed on him.

"Deck Six," Allucia said, glaring at Chakotay. But he noticed that the usual fire in her eyes wasn't there. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" she repeated.

"Halt turbolift." Chakotay stood up straight. "I already told you. When are you going to accept that we care about you?"

_**"I don't need any help!" **_she screamed. With that, she swirled around and slammed her fist into the turbolift wall. It was either that or the first officer.

Chakotay jumped. He certainly hadn't expected her to do that. Meanwhile, Allucia whimpered and fell to her knees, cradling her arm, but didn't cry out. For the first time since she regained consciousness in Sickbay, the noise in her head was dulled. The commander spoke softly. "At least let me take you to Sickbay." Allucia nodded; she was in too much pain to disagree. Chakotay felt compelled to look at the wall that had received her punch as he helped her to her feet. His eyes widened at the sight of a slight dent. "Deck Five," he said, shaking his head in awe.

* * *

"Judging by the frequency of your visits, I would say that you are here more often than Mr. Paris," the Doctor said. "Or Ms. Torres." He was running a bone regenerator over Allucia's hand; she had broken every finger, fractured her wrist, and dislocated her elbow yet again when her fist had encountered the turbolift wall.

Allucia rolled her eyes, then shut them. She was laying down on the biobed, tear stains still streaking her face. "Can I go now?"

"No. You are staying overnight this time, I don't trust you to leave on your own." the Doc replied callously.

That did it. Allucia moved to jump off the biobed and leave Sickbay. She didn't know where she was going to go, but she knew she had to get out. She felt suffocated and closed in. But the Doctor and Chakotay were faster, the Commander having told the CMO what to expect while the ensign was still dazed with pain. Chakotay grabbed Allucia around the waist as she went to jump off the bed, and the Doctor simultaneously got her at the neck with a hypospray loaded with a potent sedative. The girl immediately collapsed back onto the biobed unconscious.

"I do believe we should contact the Captain." the Doc said.

"That's an understatement. " Chakotay muttered. _Even B'Elanna wasn't this bad._

* * *

When Kathryn entered Sickbay just before Alpha Shift began at Chakotay's request, she was startled to see Allucia unconscious on a biobed. She sent the Doctor and Chakotay a puzzled and alarmed look as they exited the hologram's office.

"We had to restrain and sedate her," the Doc explained. "She was being very uncooperative."

"What happened?" Kathryn asked, very concerned.

"While attempting to elude me, she punched a turbolift wall." Chakotay put in.

"And dented it." the Doctor added.

The captain stood there aghast and totally confused, to say the least. First of all, she could not believe Allucia behaving irrationally, enough that she would have to be sedated. Secondly, she punched a wall? _Those turbolift walls are made of pure duranium and Allucia actually dented it?_

"Kathryn, we need to talk. About Allucia." Chakotay said. "Whatever happened to her down on that planet, has obviously hurt her more emotionally than physically. I thought that you, as Captain, should be informed of her condition."

"And it's getting worse," the Doctor said, "from what I can tell. She isn't eating or taking care of herself. She has lost even more weight since she has returned, and I frankly don't understand how she has the strength to even walk." The Doctor and the Commander went on to tell Kathryn of the circumstances that brought her to Sickbay.

After they had finished, Kathryn went into the Doctor's office and sat down in his chair. She needed to sit down. She put a thumb to her chin and two fingers to her temple, feeling a headache coming on. This was just too much. "What do you recommend, Commander?" the captain finally said, quietly.

"I'm the closet thing _Voyager_ has to a counselor. And I did minor in psychology at the Academy." Chakotay said. "I'd like to keep talking to her."

"Why don't you ask Tom to talk to her?" Kathryn suggested. "They were down there together, after all."

"I've been thinking about that. I don't want to burden him, but I'll still talk to him."

Kathryn nodded. "Good. I'm sure you'll find that Tom will be happy to help. Just please keep me informed."

"We will Captain―" the Doc broke off as he quickly left the office. Allucia's sedative was wearing off. She let out a shriek when she realized she was being held down by a restraining field.

Chakotay and Kathryn immediately followed. The Doctor was telling her that if she didn't calm down, he was going to have to sedate her again. He already had the hypospray ready in his hand. After thirty more seconds of unsuccessfully trying to convince the teenager to calm down, he had to use it.

"As you can see Captain..." the Doc began, and trailed off knowing the rest was better left unsaid.

Kathryn nodded, her eyes wide. "How much longer until this dosage wears off?"

"Approximately eight hours." the Doctor replied.

"I'll be back here with Chakotay then." Kathryn said. Chakotay nodded in acknowledgment. "Doctor, inform me immediately if anything else should occur."

"Aye Captain." the Doc replied.

"Until then, I'll be in my Ready Room." Kathryn turned and walked out of Sickbay.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

**A**llucia opened her eyes. Her temper flared. She was about to scream again, but instead she closed her eyes and counted to twenty-five. She was still held by the restraining field. Tom, Kathryn, Chakotay, and the Doctor were hovering over her, staring at her intently.

"Fine. I promise not to run again, just lemme out!" She sent an appealing look to Kathryn, who nodded to the Doctor. There was a shimmer as the field was turned off. She sat up. "Will everyone quit staring at me?!"

Kathryn spoke up. "Allucia, we know we can't force you to talk about what happened to you. But we can keep you in Sickbay for your own safety until the Doctor says you're well enough to leave." Then the Captain's expression turned to one of pleading, and she spoke quietly. "Please. If you don't let it out, it will kill you. You don't have to talk to anyone. Write it down if you wish. If you want to talk to someone, choose someone you're comfortable with."

Allucia gazed back at Kathryn, her face nor eyes revealing thought or emotion. Kathryn groaned inwardly. Apparently piloting wasn't the only skill Allucia had picked up from Tom, it was that damned mask he wore as well.

There was a minute of thick, awkward silence. Allucia's mind wanted to defy the Captain until they reached the Alpha Quadrant, but her heart knew there was no choice, there was no way of getting out of Kathryn Janeway's grasp. "Fine," Allucia said flatly. "I'll spill, but only if Tom is there." Allucia looked to Tom.

"Of course," Tom said, nodding.

* * *

Later that evening, Allucia, Chakotay, and Tom were in a back room of Sickbay. Chakotay and Tom were talking quietly across the room from Allucia, sitting on a couch. Allucia couldn't hear them from where she was standing, but she knew they were talking about her. She stood and gave an order of extra-sweet raktajino to the replicator.

_ "Use of the replicator has been restricted to the specified account." _the Computer crisply stated.

"Stupid piece of fucken shit!" Allucia cried, smacking the top of the replicator with her bad hand.

"Ensign! Control yourself!" Chakotay snapped, but not too harshly.

Tom did a double-take. It was one thing to hear that his adopted sister was not herself, but quite another to see it.

Allucia grumbled and threw herself on the empty couch. "Sorry." she said, exasperated.

"Would you like to start?" Chakotay asked. Tom meanwhile got the ratkajino from the replicator, which served to calm her a bit.

"I guess. Where?"

Chakotay thought for a moment. "I would like to know what happened in the house."

Allucia closed her eyes and nodded, tears quickly welling up behind them. Her mood swings never ceased to amaze the First Officer. But she knew that to get through this she would have to bare her soul. She started off the day she'd went to the main house. "I never did anything out of the ordinary, nothing to attract attention, I was biding my time. I just did my tasks as they were assigned to me, no more, no less.

"I didn't trust anyone, not even the girls I shared a dormitory with. They were let out once and a while to go to town, except for me since I was new and untrustworthy.

"Then came the night when one of the girls snuck into Sarix's room. She's the so-called 'lady of the house.'"

Chakotay saw out of the corner of his eyes Tom immediately stiffen. He knew what happened next.

"I wasn't the thief. But they suspected me, since I was new. So I took the blame," Allucia continued, her voice growing shaky. "Hoping I could gain the trust of whoever had really done it, because if they could steal jewelry, maybe they knew where I could get tools."

"And then," she said, her voice starting to squeak, her dull blue eyes filling with tears, "Sarix had me punished. Her aide tortured me for three hours, demanding that I confess to stealing.

"When Satax, the aide, got bored, I was dumped back into the dormitory, I was barely conscious." By now tears were freely streaming down her checks, and not being able to take it anymore, a few sobs escaped her. Tom came over, sitting next to her and enveloping her in a hug.

"I should have never told you to go up there," he said quietly. "This is all my fault."

Allucia pulled part-way out of the hug and looked up to Tom. "If I hadn't, we might not be here right now." she sniffed. "Let me finish." Tom nodded. "I wouldn't let them get to me. I went straight back to my chores. The girl who had been in Sarix's room agreed to help me, and got my combadge and some tools out to Tom. There was no way I could have done it, not with the increased security I was under."

Then Allucia got choked up again. "Then later that day they discovered the tools were missing. So I got punished for that too, but it was partly my fault anyway. And when I came to do my chores the next day, apparently Sarix had had it with me. They set me up...at that point I could barely push a mop, so they gave me this huge ceramic tray filled with food and told me to take it halfway across the house. I was barely out of the kitchen when my arms gave out and everything went to the floor and the tray shattered. They took me to the house's dungeon, the same place I had been tortured."

The young girl buckled entirely, crying freely now. "I was locked up with no food or water, and it was plain they planned to keep it that way. And they beat me every night. I only survived because two of the girls, the only ones who had shown any kindness to me, brought me water." She buried her face in her arms. "That's all I remember..."

"I think that is enough for now." Chakotay said quietly.


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**N**early a month had passed since Tom and Allucia had been rescued. The teenager was pretty traumatized over the whole ordeal, but the pain seemed to lessen as the days passed. And she planned to do something about it. The ensign walked up to the Chief-of-Security's quarters and pressed the door sensor.

"Come," Tuvok called.

Allucia entered. She walked in a few steps and stood as straight as she could.

"How can I help you, Ensign?" Tuvok inquired, not looking up from his game of Kal-toh.

"I was inquiring about the Vulcan martial arts course you are offering, sir." Allucia said. "I would like to enroll." Allucia thought how she never forgot protocol around Tuvok. Who could?

Tuvok raised an eyebrow as he turned his gaze from his game to the young ensign. "Vulcan martial arts, called T'Lok, requires much mental discipline and physical stamina. Are you certain you could withstand it?"

Allucia turned her head to face Tuvok. "Permission to speak freely sir?" she asked.

"Granted."

"After my recent experiences, I believe both would be beneficial to me. And I have survived much worse."

Tuvok nodded. "That is logical. I will enroll you on one condition: that you be cleared with the Doctor first."

Allucia just barely suppressed a grin. "Yes sir!" she said.

"It starts tomorrow evening. I suggest getting your physical tonight. Dismissed."

* * *

A few minutes later Allucia skipped into Sickbay. "Yoo hoo, Doc, your favorite patient is here!"

"Joy of joys. I can hardly contain my happiness." the Doc replied in his usual sardonic tone. "What can I do for you, Ensign?"

"I want to take Commander Tuvok's martial arts course. He said he would enroll me as long as I was cleared by you." Allucia said as she hopped up on a biobed.

The hologram quickly scanned his patient with a tricorder. "There seems to be nothing wrong with you today...you are well enough to take the course. Just try not to come in here too often, please."

"I promise. Thanks Doc!" Allucia called as she left Sickbay. She jogged down the hall to the turbolift. Today was her last starship piloting lesson.

* * *

Allucia walked up to Holodeck Two. Tom was waiting outside as usual. "Last lesson kiddo," Tom said as he finished putting in commands into the wall console. "It'll be a breeze." He slapped her on the back amiably. They walked into the holodeck together.

The teenager smirked. "Then I take over--"

"Surprise!" came about three dozen voices. Allucia and Tom were surrounded by other crewmembers and all of the senior staff.

"Tom..." Allucia trailed off, her voice raising an octave. She stopped in mid-stride.

"Yes?" Tom responded, mimicking her octave. He was in pig mode, and smirking like there was no tomorrow.

"Holodeck Two, tomorrow 0500. Bring a bat'leth." Another hobby she had picked up recently was Mok'Bara--Klingon calisthenics--from B'Elanna.

"Gotcha." he said, giving her a slight shove. "Now go. Your public awaits."

"Uhhhh...what's the occasion?"

Neelix came up to the foundling and put an arm around her, guiding her forward towards the sea of people before her. "This is your party just-to-have-a-party. You needed a morale boost, we could tell."

"Ummmm...uh...ummmmm..."

The Talaxian lead her to the head of a table. Allucia sat down and surveyed her surroundings. It was a softball field, with a pool in the outfield. But it wasn't just any softball field. It was Allucia's Central Park field, to catch on when she was at home, whenever she played. It was less than ten miles from her home in Bensonhurst, by subway.

"I...uh...don't know what do say..." blabbered Allucia, and then she started to cry. Tom went to ask what was wrong but she cut him off. "I'm okay," she said, wiping her tears with her uniform sleeve. "This is just so nice of everyone..." Her breath caught in her throat as she spoke, and she hiccuped.

"Aw, come here," Kathryn said, gathering Allucia in a hug, then kissed her on the forehead. "Now don't you make me cry now!" she chided.

"Hey Lusha!" Josè called.

Allucia turned around, sniffling and wiping her eyes with her sleeve again, and saw Josè jogging towards her. Her eyes widened. Josè was wearing a uniform topped with Operations colors. Entirely on impulse she ran up and hugged him. "Thank you," she said, referring to the holoprogram. It had been refined and all the best details added. He was her pitcher, after all. And he was born and raised in New York.

Josè smiled and shrugged. "Ah. It was nothing." For his modesty, Allucia swatted him on the back of the head. "Hey..." he whined.

Allucia grinned, then tugged on a shoulder of Josè's uniform. "And what is this?!"

Josè returned the grin. "I enlisted too. Couldn't let you have all the fun."

"Yeah, but I'm a red-shirt, so I'm gonna anyway."

Then Allucia got one of those gleams in her eyes. Tom recognized it immediately, and felt sorry for Josè. "Uh oh--" Tom began. Apparently Josè recognized it too, and mouthed the word "help."

Allucia grinned evilly, seeing the short exchange. "C'mon, let's go on the go-round!" she squealed, meaning the piece of play ground equipment that was like a merry-go-round but with bars instead, and spun much faster. The adults laughed as Josè was dragged off.

* * *

Tom was working the grill an hour later when someone slapped his rear, and left it there long enough for him to get chills up his spine. Tom yelped. "Yikes! 'Lanna, must you do that in public?"

B'Elanna appeared at Tom's side. "You loved every nanosecond of it, Flyboy."

Tom grinned ferally. "I know." he said, wrapping an arm around B'Elanna's waist, then swatted her own rear. B'Elanna yelped, then leaned on Tom, giggling.

"Such inappropriate behavior in front of a minor," scolded a familiar, high-pitched female voice.

Tom handed B'Elanna the spatula he had been using to flip burgers. "Hold this. I have to teach an ensign a lesson." he said.

"Uh oh!" Allucia said as Tom turned around and swiftly darted for her before she had a chance to run for it. She screeched as he threw her over his shoulder. "Tom, no, put me down, please, I'm sorry...B'Elanna help me!" Allucia began swatting Tom with her empty paper plate, her only weapon.

"Oh _nooooo_, Lush. I have to teach you a lesson." Tom mocked. B'Elanna put down the spatula and followed.

"What about the piloting?!" Allucia squealed, making a desperate and hopeless appeal, which Tom ignored. "Don't all those lessons count?!" A few moments later, a kicking and screaming Allucia was thrown into the pool. She came up sputtering but giggling, and of course, wet. "Awww, what did I do?"" she asked, feigning innocence, then gave Tom a good splash.

B'Elanna started laughing, seeing Tom get splashed, so much that she didn't notice Tom had picked her up until it was too late. "Tom, _no_! Don't you--"

A half-Klingon lieutenant joined a human ensign in the water. Twenty feet away, a human commander grinned evilly at a human captain.

"Chakotay, you wouldn't."

The first officer's grin widened, as did Kathryn's green eyes in fear. She put down her drink, and got up, backing away from him; Chakotay grabbed Kathryn's wrists before she could get too far.

"I would."

"I'll throw you in the brig!" Kathryn said helplessly, leaning back as he pulled her forward, her feet dragging on the grass.

"I'll take my chances!" a grinning Chakotay shot back.

A few moments later Kathryn and Chakotay fell in the water together.

* * *

**Want to read the sequel? Head on over to my profile to read Love Hurts...the next story in the saga of Lusha Banks...**

* * *


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